Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-25
SURFACE CIVILIZATION.
Young Zulu Girl Who CouIdn't Re-
sist Her Natural Tendencies

Lady Broome In the Cornhll Magazine.
L think quite the most curious instance
OF the thinness of surface civilization
among these Zulu people came to me In the
case OF a young Zulu girl who had been
early left an orphan and had been care
1uily trained in clergyman's family. She
was about sixteen years old when she came
as my nursemaid, and was very plump and
comely, with a beaming countenance and
the sweetest voice and prettiest manners
possible. She had a great love of music,
and performed tremendously enough on an
accordion, as well as on several queer little
pipes and reeds. She could speak, read and
write Dutch perfectly, as Well Zulu. and
was nearly as proficient in English She
carried little Bible always In her pocket
and often tried my gravity by dropping on
one knee by my side whenever she caught
me sitting down and alone and beginning
TO read aloud from 1t. 1t was quite a new
possession and she had not got beyond the
opening chapters of Genesis, and delighted
In the story of Dam and Eva" as she
called our first parents.
She proved excellent nurse and thor
oLghly trustworthy; the children were de-
voted to her, especially the baby, who
learned to speak Zulu before English, and
to throw reed aSsegai as soon as he
could stand firmly on his little fat legs I
brought her to England after she had been
about a year with me, and she adapted
herself marvelously and unhesitatingly to
the conditions of a civilization far beyond
what she had ever dreamed of.
friend of mine CHANGED to be returning to
Natal, and proposed that 1 should spare my
Zulu nurse to her. Her husbands magis-
tracy being close to where Maria's tribe
dwelt. 1t seemed a good opportunity for
Maria to return to her own country; so Of
course l let her go. begging my friend to
tell me how the girl got on. The parting
from the little boys was heart breaking
scene. nor was Maria at all comforted by
the fine clothes all my friends insisted on
giving her. Not even huge Gainsborough
hat garnfshed with giant peoples could con-
sole her for leaving her little chieftain;'
but 1t was at all events something to send
her off SO comfortably provided for, and
with two large boxes of good clothes.
In the course of q few months 1 received
a letter from my friend. who was then set
tied in her up-country home, but her story
OF Martas doing seemed well-nigh incredi-
BILE, though perfectly true. All had gone
well on the voyage, and so long as they re-
manned at Durham and Maritzburg; but as
soon as the distant settlement was reached
Maria's kinsmen came around her and be-
gan to claim some share In her prosperity.
Free fights were Of constant occurrence
and In one OF them Maria, using the skull
Of an OK as q weapon, broke her sisters
leg. Soon after that she returned to the
savage life she had not known since her in
fancy, and took to 1t with delight I don't
know what became of her clothes but she had
presented herself before my friend clad in
an old sack and with necklaces of wild AMI
mails teeth, and proudly announced she had
Just been married with cows"-thus show
ing how completely her Christianity had
fallen away from her, and she had practi-
cally returned, on the first opportunity, to
the depth of that savagery from which she
had been taken before she could even re-
member it. I soon lost all trace Of her, but
Maria's story has always remained in my
mind an amazing instance of the
strength Of race instinct.