Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-19
kAFFlRS AS SCOUTS.

Instinct and Training Have Given
Them Almost Supernatural keenness.
From the London Pail Mall Gazette.
Whoever like the African poet, Thomas
Prngle, has ridden over the South African
veldO with the silent bushboy' (kaffir or
Tottie) by his side will at once know
that he has by him creature endowed
with a sense or instinct that is absolutely
inexplicable to the purblind and puzzled
European, whose eyes have been bieared by
paper examinations and ears dulled by the
pounding din of underground railways,
traction engines, bells and other inventions
OF civilization. Here, more or less in his
primitive state, is the child of the veldt.
from his infancy the ways of birds and
beasts have been revealed to him as the
leaves of a book, opening page by page, I'll
the story of the land is revealed. He creeps
with naked feet among the big holders OF
the kopjes or krantZes like the Cape pam
Their itself; he waits with patience that Is
abnormal to us for his opportunity OF re-
connoitering; he congresses his body into
the smallest possible dimensions in way
that a Highland deer stalker might well
envy; he initiates the stiffness OF the rock
lizard, and Is keeping every muscle taut in
watchful energy He knows that 'fontein
to which the bush doves gather in the early
morning to drink. and should 1t happen that
a foraging or scouting party is there and
the bush doves swoop aside in affrighted
crowds he is the alert and takes the
hint There is reason to be doubly cautious
now. Should the smoke of a campfire be
permitted incautiously to arise, his eyes
will first discern it and separate it, small
though it be, from the morning mist that is
climbing round the hillside. Should scout
indulge in the strong but withal fragrant
and pleasant Boer 'baccy, the native
will detect it from afar, should the wind
carry it down the kloof: He knows, too, all
the alarm notes of bird or beast. Yonder,
in the kopje or krarrtz, he hears the sharp
alarm note of a dassie, or rock rabbit, or
down in the recesses OF a kioof he notes
the cessation. suddenly, of two louris an
swering or challenging one another. Or he
knows that such and such a cliff is the
haunt of the rock "spreeuw," or starting.
Why do they leave their haunts and go
elsewhere?
Even the balloons among the lodges of
the hill may give their tocsin of alarm, not
the rating they give the Cape leopard that
may be Creeping after one Of the unwary
| and incautious youngsters, but something
| quite different at the sight of man. The
| vu;ture, too. may have their eyries in the
krantzes, and give signs of being disturbed;
or far away in the clear African sky, these
| birds themselves, swinging in great lazy
| circles almost out OF sight on the garage
of their WINGS" may at last descend upon
| a certain spot for their obscene feast. But
| they tell story to watchful OBJ
server, who. like the native. will guess
| from their very flight the presence or alb
| sence of man, as the, case may be. Then in
the rhinosterbush on the hillside a scolding
! "knorhaan' may spring up with loud. dis
|
does this mean? 1t may be a jackal return
| ing from its midnight prowl. or it may be
| that arch-enemy man. Or a "clumpjie" of
| guinea fowl may have started up from the
/ river side suddenly. where they had been
| roosting. Their very flight will tell what
| has disturbed them and made them depart
| So, too, the Kaffir crane, the harrier-hawk,
| sitting motionless in the misty morning on
some tall bush, will each in their way aid
the backwoodsman's search. who will draw
| his omens from bird and beast alike. Who
| will deny that the lore Of the veldt and the
| cunning of the primitive naturalist are use
! full sometimes? We who have scarcely a
| bowling acquaintance with the dawn know
] very little The child of the veldt knows
| much. Then, of course, the native has
! local knowledge. We may be trying to
| guess what Is on the other side of a mex or
| kopje but the native knows what is there
Has he not, as a wandering herd Winding
| the flocks of merino sheep or Angora goats
spent hours in the sunshine on the very
slope YOU wish to know about, Grooming ont
the while some old Kafhr refrain or carving
a wooden pipe? He must know every
stone, cave and hollow that is there
| Then there is the art of ''spooring" or
tracking The veldt of South Africa, in dry
spells looks, and really is. hard and almost
| aiamantine. Seldom will a soft place an
| pear for the foot Of man or beast to leave
| its imprint In such country old .Red
/ Rube" of Exmoor fame would be hopeless
| " out of it, and. be no better or worse thar
| the most purblind child of civilization, al.
though he might have been able always ia
''slot'' and harbor his deer In HorneI