The Worthington advance., 1901-03-08
RRvERsIoN q sllVlAGRRY



civilization among these people came
to me in the case Of Q young Zulu
girl, who had been early left an or
Phan, and had been carefully trained
il. . clergy yman's family, says .
writer in Cornhill Magazine. She'was
about 16 years old when she came as
mynursemaid, and wasvery plump and
comely, with q beaming countenanoe
and the sweetest voice and. pret-
tiest manners possible. She had .
great love of music, and performed
harmoniously enough ON an accor-
dion, % well as on several queer little
pipes and reeds. She could speak,
read and write Dutch perfectly, as
well rs Zulu, and was nearly as pro-
acient in English. She carried . lit
tie 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
it.. It:was quite 9 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 IN excellent nurse and thor
oughly trustworthy; the children
wer devoted to her, especially the
baby, who learned to speak Zulu be-
fore English, and to throw a reed
assegai" as soon as he could stand
firmly on his little fat legs. ]
brought her to England after she
had been about a year with me, and
she adapted herself marvelously and
unhesitatingly to the conditions of q
civilization far beyond what she had
ever dreamed of. After she had got
over her surprise at the ship know:
ing it's way across the ocean, she
proved q capital sailor. She took to
London life and London ways as il
she had never known anything else,
The only serious mistake size made
was once in yielding to the blandish'
ments- of persuasive italian image
man and promising to buy his whole
tray of statues. I found the hall
filled with these works of art, and
Malta rendering, with sweetestsmiles
few pence in exchange for them
It was a disagreeable job to have to
persuade the man to depart in peace
with all his images, even with little
money to console him.
A friend of mine chanced to be re-
turning to Natal, and proposed that
I should spare my Zulu nurse to her
Her husbands magistracy being
close to where Malia's tribe dwelt, i,
seemed good opportunity for Malta
to return to her own country; so, OF
course, I let her go, begging my
friend to tell me how the girl got
on. The parting from the little boys
was a heart-breaking scene, nor was
Malta at al comforted by the fine
clothes all my friends insisted on
giving her. Not even huge Gains
borough hat, garnished with giant
poppies, could console her for leav
ing her ''little chieftain," but it was
at all events, something to send he1
off so comfortably provided for, and
with two large boxes of good clothes
In the course of few months
received letter from my friend, whe
was then settled in her up-countrJ
home, but her story of Malia's do
ings seemed well-nigh incredible
though perfectly true.
All had gone we'll on the voyage
and so long as they remained at Dur
ban and Maritzbtrg, but as soon as
the distant settlement was reached
Malia's kinsmen came around hel
and began to claim some share in hel
property. Free fights were of con
stant occurrence, and in one of them
Malta, using the skull of an OK as 8
weapon, broke her sisters leg. Soon
after that she returned to the saw.
age life she had not known since
her Infancy, and took to it with de-
light. 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
animals teeth, and proudly an
nounced she had just been married
''with cows''-thus showing how com
pletely her Christianity had faller
away from her, and she had practi
cally returned, on the first opportu
nifty, to the depth of that savagery
from which she had been taken be-
fore she could even remember, it.
soon lost all trace of her, but Malia's
story has always remained in my
mind as an amazing instance of the
strength of race instinct.
CURIOUS ROOT OF KANSAS.
| 1t Is Formed Like q Man and Growa
Abundantly in the Rich River
Bottoms.