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SOUTH AFRICAN
FOLK-LORE
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OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
MACMILLAN AND LONDON
CO., LIMITED
BOMBAY CALCUTTA MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY YORK DALLAS
BOSTON CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO
NF.W
THE MACMILLAN
CO.
OF CANADA,
TORONTO
LTD.
Outa Karcl and
Little Jan
The
Little
Red Tortoise Frontispiece
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES SOUTH AFRICAN FOLK-LORE TALES
BY
SANNI METELERKAMP
WITH ILUjSTKATICNS BY GO.HS1ANCE PENSTONE .
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,
,
-
,00
,
MACMILLAN AND ST.
' ,
J
CO.,
LIMITED
MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1914
'
COPYRIGHT
TO ALL CHILDREN
YOUNG AND OLD
WHO
LOVE A FOLK-LORE STORY '
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FOREWORD. MY
thanks are due to Dr. Maitland Park,
Editor of The Cape Times, and Adv. B. K.
Long, M.L.A., Editor of The State, for their kind permission to republish such of these tales as
have appeared
in their papers. " in Sun "
For the leading idea The "The Stars and the Stars' Road,"
and
I
gladly indebtedness to that monu-
acknowledge my ment of patient labour and research,
mens
of
Bushman
Folk-lore,"
"
Speci-
by the
late Dr.
Bleek and Miss Lucy Lloyd. Further, I lay no claim to originality for
any of the
stories in this collection
at best a
very small proportion of a vast store from which the story-teller of the future may draw,
embodying the ceptions,
the
superstitions, the crude con-
childish
ideas
of a
primitive
and rapidly disappearing people. They are known in some form or other wherever the
FOREWORD
viii
negro has set
of every
property
and are the common
foot,
country child
South
in
Africa.
greatly regret that they appear here in
I
what
No
to them, a foreign tongue.
is,
who has
not heard them
in
the
one
Taal
that
quaint, expressive language of the people-
can have any idea of what they lose through translation,
but,
instance
first
original
having been written
for
in
the
English publications, the
medium was
out of the question.
Clear cold evenings, with a pleasant tang of frost in the air, figure here and there in these pages, but as flit
I
write other scenes, too,
across the lighted screen of
noontides of tropic heat with
sunk
in
Memorythe world
a languorous slumber, glowing sunsets,
throbbing
seemed
all
to
summer
nights
when
the
stars
tremble almost within one's reach,
moonlit spaces filled with soft mystery and the thousand seductive voices of the pulsing
southern night.
And
always, part and parcel
of the passing panorama, the quaint figure of
the old Native with his
little
masters.
FOREWORD It
is
nearly three years
Friend Death
"
ix
now
since
"Old
took him gently by the hand
and
led him away to that far, far country of which he had such vague ideas, so he tells no more stories by the firelight in the gloamand his little masters children no ing ;
claimed
are
longer
wider
interests.
both
little
growth,
by graver
But
in the
ones and
may
find the
tasks
and
hope that others,
children
a larger
of
same pleasure
in
these
tales of a childlike race, they are sent out to
find their
the
own
level
and take
their
chance
workaday world. S.
CAPE TOWN, January,
1914.
M.
in
CONTENTS. PAGE I.
II.
III.
IV. V.
VI.
VII.
THE PLACE AND THE PEOPLE
How WHO WHY WHO
JAKHALS FED
WAS KING? THE HYENA
OOM LEEUW LAME
54
THE STARS AND THE
STARS' ROAD-
THE
ANIMALS'
XIV.
XV.
47
THE SUN
X.
XIII.
43
WAS THE THIEF?-
IX.
XII.
12 :?9
is
THE HARE'S NOSE
XL
-
-
WHY How
VIII.
i
is
SLIT
-
THE JACKAL GOT HIS STRIPE
DAM
63 70 78
88
SAVED BY HIS TAIL
101
THE FLYING LION
108
WHY
118
THE HERON HAS A CROOKED NECK
THE LITTLE RED TORTOISE-
128
THE OSTRICH HUNT
139
ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE
Outa
and
Karel
Little
Jan
The
Little
Tortoise
"The "
Stars'
Red Frontispiece
Road"
The women
with
64 their
babies
on their backs,
flew"
81
The punishment "
'
Do
you
moment
"The
of Broer Babiaan
know, I
little
Red
Tortoise,
could swallow you
99 in
one
'
Ostriches ran faster and faster"
136
144
GLOSSARY. Awa-skin, skin slung across the back to carry babies in. Askoekies. cakes baked in
Jakhals draaie, tricky turns. Kaross. skin rug. Kierie, a thick stick.
the ash.
Klein koning. little king. Kneehaltered, hobbled.
Baas, master.
Baasje (pronounced Baasie), little
Babiaan. baboon.
Berg
mountain
schilpad.
I
Kopdoek, turban. Kopje, hill. Krantz. precipice.
master.
tor-
Kraal, enclosure.
toise.
Biltong, strips of sun-dried
meat.
Lammervanger. Leeuw, lion.
eagle.
Bolmakissie, head over heels.
Maanhaar. mane.
Bossies, bushes.
Mensevreter, cannibal.
Broer, brother.
Buchu, an aromatic veld herb. Carbonaatje, grilled chop.
Neef, nephew. Nooi, lady or mistress.
Nonnie, young lady. miss.
Dassie. rock-rabbit.
Oom. Eintje,
an edible veld
Gezondheid
!
root.
Your health
uncle.
Outa, old man. prefix to the name of old natives.
!
Pronk, show Haasje,
little
off.
hare.
Hamel, wether.
Reijer, heron.
GLOSSARY.
XVI
Riem, leathern thong. Rustband, couch.
Taai, tough.
Tante, aunt. Tarentaal, Guinea fowl.
or Sessebe, a South
Sassaby
Tover,
toverij, witchcraft.
African antelope.
Schelm, rogue
;
Vaabond, vagabond.
sly.
Schilpad, tortoise. Sjambok, whip of rhino or
Vlakte, plain.
hippo hide. Skraal windje,
denly and violently. Volk, coloured farm labourers.
fine
cutting
wind.
Voertsed, jumping aside sud-
Volstruis, ostrich.
Skrik, to
be startled
fright.
;
also
Vrouw, wife. Vrouwmens, woman.
Slim, cunningly clever.
Smouse, pedlar. Soopje,
tot.
Zandkruiper, sand- crawler.
I.
THE PLACE AND THE PEOPLE. was winter
IT
in
The
the Great Karroo.
evening air was so crisp and cutting that one seemed to hear the crick-crack of the
formed on the scant vegetation. skraal windje blew from the distant mounas
frost,
A
tains,
it
bringing with
it
a mingled odour of
karroo-bush, sheep-kraals, and the Kafir huts
smoke from
none, perhaps, desirable in
so blent and purified in that rare, clear atmosphere, and so subservient to
itself,
but
all
the
exhilarating
der
Merwe
freshness,
took several
that
sniffs
Pietie
van
of pleasure
he peered into the pale moonlight over the lower half of the divided door. Then,
as
with a
little
involuntary shiver, he
closed
the upper portion and turned to the ruddy
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
2
warmth of the purring fire, which Willem was feeding with mealie-cobs from the basket beside him. Little
Jan
sat in the corner of the wide,
old-fashioned rustbank, his large grey eyes
gazing wistfully into the red heart of the fire, while his hand absently stroked Torry, the fox terrier, curled up beside him.
her big Madeira chair at the side table, yawned a little over her book
Mother,
in
;
for,
winter or summer,
the
mistress
of a
karroo farm leads a busy life, and the end of the day finds her ready for a well-earned rest. Pietie held his
hands towards the
blaze,
head now and again towards the the far end of the room. Presently
turning his
door at this
and
opened and father appeared, comfortably
such things as shearing, dipping, and ploughing were no part of his Only the healthy tan, the broad day's work. leisurely, as
if
shoulders, the whole well-developed physique
His proclaimed his strenuous, open-air life. eye rested with pleasure on the scene before
him
the
bright
fire,
throwing gleam and
PLACE AND PEOPLE
3
shadow on painted wall and polished woodwork, and giving a general air of cosiness to everything
meal
;
the table spread for the evening
the group at the fireside
;
and
;
his dear
helpmate who was responsible for the comfort and happiness of his well-appointed home.
He
was followed
in
moment by Cousin
a
the bright-faced
Minnie,
Their
coming
children.
caused
Little
Jan
a
young governess. stir
slowly
the
among withdrew
his
gaze from the fire, and, with more energy than might have been expected from his
dreamy
look,
pushed and prodded the sleep-
make
ing terrier along the rustbank so as to
room
for
Cousin Minnie.
" Now sprang to his father's side. " go and call Outa Karel ? he asked
Pietie
may
I
eagerly,
and
at
an acquiescent
my
"Yes,
boy," away he sped. It
was a strange
bidding,
shuffling,
came
figure that
stooping,
halting,
emerging into the firelight. might have been forgiven for finally
terror, for the
new
at his
and
A stranger fleeing
in
arrival looked like nothing
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
4
much
so
as an ancient
and muscular
gorilla in
man's clothes, and walking uncertainly on hind legs.
its
He
was not quite four feet in height, with shoulders and hips disproportionately broad, and long arms, the hands of which reached midway between knee and ankle. His lower limbs were clothed in nondescript garments fashioned from wildcat and dassie skins a ;
faded brown coat, which from
its
size
had
evidently once belonged to his master, nearly to his his
shapeless
seen to be
No
knees
;
felt
while,
hung when he removed
a red kopdoek was tightly round his head.
hat,
wound
one had ever seen Outa Karel without
kopdoek, but it was reported that the head it covered was as smooth and devoid of his
hair as an ostrich egg.
His yellow-brown face was a network of wrinkles, across which his flat nose sprawled broadly between high cheekbones his eyes, ;
sunk
far
back into
and beady
his head, glittered
dark
wicked eyes of a snake peeping from the shadow of a hole in like
the
little
PLACE AND PEOPLE
5
His wide mouth twisted
the rocks.
itself
an engaging grin, which extended from ear to ear, as, winking and blinking his into
bright
little
eyes, he twirled his old hat in his
claw-like hands and tried to to his master
and
make obeisance
mistress.
The attempt was
unsuccessful on account
of the stiffness of his joints, failed
to
to
be
it
never
amuse those who, times without
number, had seen witnessed
but
it
it
for the first
remembered
portionate form
;
To
repeated.
time
it
those
who
was something
the
grotesque, disprothe ape-like face, that yet
was so curiously human
the
;
humour and
kindness that gleamed from the cavernous
which seemed designed to express only malevolence and cunning the long waving eyes,
;
arms and crooked
fingers
;
the yellow skin
the world like a crumpled sheet of india-rubber pulled in a dozen different for all
directions.
That he was a consummate to put too fine a point
of the
first
on
it,
actor, and, not
an old humbug
water, goes without saying, for
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
6 these
are
characteristics
But
native nature.
uncanniness of
his
inherent
in spite of this,
appearance,
in
the
and the
was
there
something about Outa Karel that drew one to him. Of his real devotion to his master
and the "beautiful family Van der Merwe," there could be no question while, above ;
everything, was the
of an outcast race, original
inhabitants
feeling that here
was one
one of the few of the
who had
tide of civilization
survived
the
who, knowing submerging no law but that of possession, had been scared and chased from their happy hunting grounds, ;
by the Hottentots, then by the powerful Bantu, and later by the still more terrifying palefaced tribes from over the seas. Though first
the origin of the
Bushman
is
lost in the mists
of antiquity, the Hottentot conquest of him is
a matter of history, and
that
the
victors
killing off the
were
men,
in
it
well
is
the
habit,
to take unto
known while
themselves
amonoO the women of the vanHence the fact that a perfect quished race. specimen of a Bushman is a rara avis, even wives from
PLACE AND PEOPLE in the localities
known
where the
last
7
remnants are
to linger.
Outa Karel could hardly be specimen of the original
called a perfect
race, for,
though he
always spoke of himself as wholly Bushman, there was a strong strain of the Hottentot about him, chiefly noticeable
He
in
spoke
Dutch,
in
in his build.
the curiously ex-
pressive voice belonging to these people, just
now honey-sweet
with the deference he
felt
for his superiors.
"Ach
Night, Baas.
toch!
Night, Nonnie and that this old
you
Bushman does
the will
;
Thank
stiff.
my little
is
Night, Nooi.
baasjes.
Excuse
not bend to greet
there, but his
you, thank you,
knees are too
my
baasje," as
dragged a low stool, covered with springbok skin, from under the desk in the Pietie
and pushed it towards him. He sethimself on it slowly and carefully, with
recess tled
much creaking
of joints and
many
strange
native ejaculations.
The
group had arranged itself anew. Cousin Minnie was in the cosy corner of the little
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
8
Jan next her with his head against her, and Torry's head on his lap this attention to make up for his
rustbank near the wall,
late
seeming unkindness
little
in
pushing him away.
Pappa, with his magazine, was at the other end of the rustbank where he could, if he chose, speak to
in
a low tone, or
how
her book was getting Willem had pushed the basket away so
peep over on.
Mamma
to see
as to settle himself
more comfortably against
Cousin Minnie's knee as he sat on the
and
Pietie
of the
was on a
floor,
small chair just in front
fire.
The
centre of attention was the quaint old
who, having relegated his duties to his children and grandchildren, lived as a
native,
privileged pensioner in the van der
Merwe
family he had served so faithfully for three
The
played over his quaint figure with the weirdest effect, lighting generations.
firelight
up now one portion of ing
up
crooked
his
now
another, show-
astonishingly small
fingers, as
incessantly
it,
hands and
he pointed and gesticulated
for these
people speak as
much
PLACE AND PEOPLE by gesture as by sound gerated shadows on the
9
and throwing exagwall.
This was the hour beloved by the children, when the short wintry day had ended, and, in the interval
ness
and
Outa
Karel
between the coming of dark-
the
evening meal, their dear was allowed in to tell them
stories.
And
weird and wonderful stories they were
spooks and giants, of good and bad of animals that talked, of birds, beasts
tales of spirits,
and
insects that exercised marvellous influence
over the destinies of unsuspecting mankind.
But most
thrilling of
all,
perhaps, were Outa
Karel's personal experiences
veld and krantz with crocodile, such as
lion,
no longer
adventures by tiger, jackal fall
and
to the lot of
mortal man.
The
children would listen, wide-eyed and
breathless,
and even
their elders,
sparing a
moment's attention from book or writing, would feel a tremor of excitement, unable to determine where reality ended
and
fiction
began, so inextricably were they intermingled
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
io as
wove
lago of the desert
old
this
his
romances. "
Now, Outa,
tell
us a nice story, the nicest
you know," said little Jan, nestling closer to Cousin Minnie, and issuing his command as the autocrat of the "
One Thousand and One
Nights" might have done. "
Ach
but
!
black one
klein
baas,
knows no new
this
old
stupid
stories,
only the old
ones of Jakhals and Leeuw, and tell even those when his throat
how can he is
so dry with the dust from the kraals
He
ach,
dry " ?
forced a gurgling cough, and his small
Then suddenly eyes glittered expectantly. he started with well-feigned surprise and beamed on
Pietie,
who
stood beside him with
a soopje in the glass kept for his especial use. This was a nightly performance. The lubrication
was never
forgotten, but
it
often purposely delayed in order to see
pretext
Outa would use
the fact of throat,
its
what
to call attention to
not having been offered.
headache,
was
Sore
stomach-ache, cold, heat,
rheumatism, old age, a birthday (invented
for
PLACE AND PEOPLE
n
the occasion), the killing of a snake or the
breaking-in of a young horse anything served as an excuse for what was a time-
honoured custom. "
Thank
you, thank you, mij klein koning.
Gezondheid
Nonnie, and the
to Baas, Nooi,
beautiful family
He
van der Merwe."
lifted
gulped down the contents, and smacked his lips approvingly. " Ach if a the
glass,
!
Bushman
How down
only had a neck like an ostrich
good would the soopje
Now
!
ready to
tell
I
am
taste all the
strong again
;
now
the story of Jakhals and
!
way I
am
Oom
Leeuw." " About his "
back
Oom Leeuw
"
carrying Jakhals on
asked Willem.
?
No, baasje.
This
is
quite
a different
one."
And
with
imitating
many
strange every action and
gesticulations,
changing
his
voice to suit the various characters, the old
man began
:
II.
HOW JAKHALS FED OOM "
ONE day
in the early
people were
LEEUW.
morning, before any
Jakhals was prowling
awake,
round and prowling round, looking thing to eat. for himself.
hunt
Jakhals
Oh, no
!
is
he
for
some-
not fond of hunting likes to wait
till
the
over, so that he can share in the feast
is
He without having had any of the work. had just dragged himself quietly to the top with his of a kopje so, my baasjes, so the ground, and his ears Outa's backwards and forwards"
stomach close
moving little
to
hands, on either side of the kopdoek,
word
"to hear the
Then he looked
here, he looked
suited the action to the least sound.
there,
he looked
whom do you
all
think
around, and yes, truly
he saw
in
the
!
kloof
JAKHALS FED OOM LEEUW below
No
?
other than
Oom Leeuw
13
him-
self, clawing a nice big hamel he had just killed a Boer hamel, baasjes, with a beauti-
ful fat tail.
Oh
yes,
Oom Leeuw
had picked
out a good one.
'"Arre"!' thought Jakhals, 'this
and he
is
luck,'
wondering how he could get some of the nice meat for himself. He soon made a plan. A white thing sat
for a minute,
still
fluttered in a little
He
piece of paper.
and so
so
bush near him. picked
and so
'
it
It
was a
up and folded
it
the crooked fingers
were very busy "till it looked like a letter. Then he ran down the kopje in a great hurry and called out, Good morning, Oom.' '
"
'
"
'
"
'
Morning, Neef.' I see Oom has killed a Boer hamel.'
Yes, Neef, a big fat one.' "'Well, here is a letter from Tante,' said Jakhals, giving the piece of paper to Leeuw. '
As
I
was passing she asked me
to give
it
to
Oom.' "
Leeuw took
that way.
He
it
held
and turned it
far
it
this
way,
from him, he held
i
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
4
it
close to his eyes, but he couldn't
out at
all.
Leeuw was one
See, baasjes,
the old-fashioned sort.
make
it
of
He
grew up before there were so many schools and good teachers"
here Outa's bright eyes winked and blinked flatteringly on Cousin Minnie and her pupils
"he was not
clever;
he could not read.
But he didn't want anyone said "
know
tacles
so he
'
Oom
has forgotten his specyou had better read it out."
;
Hm, hm,
hm,' said Jakhals, pretending
Tante says Oom must Boer hamel and send it home
to read. fat
it,
:
'
Jakhals, "
to
'
kill
at
a nice
once by
She and the children are hungry.' Here is the very 'Well, that's all right. Tante is not very well. The Jew thing.
me.
"
smouse's donkey she ate the other day disagreed with her, so we must coax her a little. I
don't want to say anything, but
vrouwmens in
is
a temper.
hamel
a dangerous thing
So you had
to her at once,
you know a
when she
is
better take this
and then you can have
the offal for your trouble."
JAKHALS FED OOM LEEUW "
'
Thank
you, noble
Oom, King
15
of Beasts,'
said Jakhals in a fawning voice, promising himself at the same time that he would have
something more than the tunate the
am
King
'
offal.
How
for-
poor humble creature, to have
I,
my
for
uncle,'
and
he trotted
off
with the sheep. "
Leeuw prowled
waving his Outa had a but, as
the
kloof,
tail
from side to side."
Had
tail
he would have wagged
and "
description.
bokje on
its
but
!
looks there, little
up
it,
he had not, his right arm was slowly
flourished to
Ach
further
fro
Here comes a
is
pretty
with
front foot
its
is in
the other goes up
;
It
!
to
for water.
looks
here,
down
;
it
is
On
it
comes,
now
again.
it
One down
large soft eyes.
the air
his
Steen-
little
dam
to a veld
way
it
to give point
;
Outa's hands, bunched up slowly, slowly" to resemble the buck's feet, illustrated each the children following his " with breathless interest. Now step,
listen."
Outa was
rigid as
to catch the least sound.
movements it
stops to
he bent forward
Suddenly he started
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
16
and the children involuntarily did " Hark what was that ? What the same. violently,
!
coming ? Ach and shivers A is
Great
!
with
their
LEEUW
cruel
eyes
Now
fire.
LEEUW who
!
form
terrible
!
way
how Steenbokje
!
skriks
blocks
the
burn
him
eyes
he knows. stands
in
It
is
the path
!
He
growls and glares at Steenbokje. Steenbokje cannot turn away. They stare at each other
"
just so
so
Outa
glares at each
"
Steenbokje cannot look away, cannot move. He is stiff with fright. His blood is cold. His eyes
fascinated child in turn.
And
are starting out of his head. "
voops
!
the listeners
jump
then
as Outa's long
"one arms suddenly swoop towards them Steenbokje spring and Leeuw is on him. blares
meh, meh,
Leeuw
tears
tip,
meh
the red blood drips
There
dead."
The
is
it
no good.
him and claws him.
runs out like a stream, up.
but
lies
pretty
Outa's voice children
;
little
trails
heave
Tip,
tip,
down s-s-s-s-s, and Leeuw licks
it it
Steenbokje, dead,
away
big
faintly.
sighs.
Little
JAKHALS FED OOM LEEUW Jan's grey eyes are
17
The old made them
of tears.
full
native's graphic description has
though they had been watching round
feel as
a death-bed.
"Yes,
baasjes,
Leeuw
He
there in the kloof. skr-r-r-r
and
to
for
killed
Steenbokje
tore the skin off
through the bones skrnch, and ate little Steenbokje for skrnch, skrnch his breakfast. Then he went to the krantzes sleep,
light "
began
When
bit
was coming and the
the day
to hurt his eyes.
he awoke
it
was evening, and he
refreshed and rather hungry.
felt
know
a Steenbokje
Oom
Leeuw.
My baasjes
nothing for a meal for But before hunting again he is
thought he would go
home and
see
how
Tante and the children were getting on, and whether they had feasted well on the nice fat
ham el. "
But,
Leeuw
dear land find
?
The
!
What
did poor
children
crying,
Oom Tante
and scratching with rage, everything upside down, and not even the bones of the hamel to be seen.
spluttering
1
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
8
'"Ohe! ohe! ohe!' wicked Jakhals
bad,
dog!' " But what '
is
Ach, the low, veld
!
the matter?' asked Leeuw.
'Where is Jakhals?' "'Where is he?
How
should
He
has run off with the nice
me
yes, me, the King's wife
with the entrails "
'
Ohe
!
And boxed my '
cubs.
'The
cried Tante.
ohe
!
'
ears
Wah wah wah !
!
!
know?
hamel, and
has he beaten ' !
cried one of the
' !
"
'And pinched my 'Weh! weh! weh
fat
I
tail,'
roared the other.
'
!
"
'
And
left
us nothing but the
Oh,
offal. '
the cunning, smooth-tongued vagabond " And all three fell to weeping and wailing, !
while "
fore
'
Leeuw
roared aloud in his anger. Wait a bit, I'll get him,' he said. the
world wakes to-morrow
he'll
'
Besee
who's baas.' "
He waved
his tail to
and
fro
and stuck
His eyes glared like a dark kloof when there is no moon,
out his strong claws. fire
in
and when he brulled
it
was very
terrible to
JAKHALS FED OOM LEEUW hear
hoor-r-r-r-r,"
hoor-r-r-r-r,
gave vent
to
several
deep,
and
19
Outa
blood-curdling
roars. "
Very early the next morning, when only a little grey in the sky shewed that the night was
rolling
world,
round to the other side of the
Leeuw took
his strongest
started off to look for Jakhals.
on the top of a krantz with his wife and children. at last
"'Ah!
there you are,
my
sjambok and He spied him
sitting
by a
fine fellow,'
'
thought.
fire
Well and happy are you soon show you
?
he
But
'
wait,
I'll
!
"He
began at once to try and climb the krantz, but it was very steep and high, and so smooth that there was nothing for him to hold
to.
Every time he got up a
his claws just scratched along the
and he came
down
sailing
thought, 'Well, as
I
again.
little
way, hard rock
At
can't climb up,
last
I'll
he
pre-
tend to be nice and friendly, and then perhaps I'll ask him to Jakhals will come down. go
hunting with me.'
Here
Outa's
'
beady
little
eyes
danced
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
20
"
mischievously.
Baasjes
the
know,
to get the better of a schelm
way
When
too.
schelm,
anyone
must cheat more, or you Ach, yes
!
that
is
will
only to
is
cheats,
be
you
never be baas.
the only way."
(Cousin Minnie would not disturb the course of the tale, but she mentally prescribed
and stored up for future use an antidote this pagan and wordly-wise piece of advice
to
to
her pupils.) "
So Leeuw stood
at the foot of the krantz
and called out quite friendly and kind,
'
Good
morning, Neef Jakhals.' <:
'
"
'
Morning, Oom.' I
thought you might
with me, but
"At any
I
like to
go hunting
see you are busy.'
other time Jakhals would have
skipped with delight, for it was very seldom he had the honour of such an invitation,
now he was blown up
but
having cheated
Oom
with conceit at
and Tante Leeuw so
nicely. "
of
'
Thank
meat
you,
Oom,
just now.
but
I
am
not in want
I'm busy grilling
some
JAKHALS FED OOM LEEUW nice fat mutton chops for breakfast.
you come and have some, too " is
'
'
Ach
!
in
you up
me
Won't
'
?
Certainly, with pleasure, but this krantz
so steep "
21
how can
'
I
Oom.
that's quite easy,
an eye-wink.
I'll
pull
Here, vrouw, give old rotten one
That
a nice thick riem.
that
?
get up
nearly rubbed through,' he said in a
is
whisper to his wife. " So Mrs. Jakhals,
who was
as slim as her
husband, brought the bad riem, and they set to
work
hoo-ha
to pull '
Oom Leeuw
'
up.
Hoo-ha
!
they sang as they slowly hauled
!
away. "
When
he was about ten
feet
from the
ground, Jakhals called out, Arre but Oom is heavy,' and he pulled the riem this way '
!
and that way along the sharp edge of the " krantz Outa vigorously demonstrated broke right through and kabloops down fell Oom Leeuw to the hard ground
"till
it
!
below. " I
'Oh!
hope
my
Oom
goodness is
!
not hurt.
What
a terrible
How
fall
!
stupid can a
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
22
vrouwmens be
when
To
!
called for the best
I
me an
give
Now, here
!
Oom can try again.' strong one. " So Leeuw tried and again,
is
a
and
again,
times over, but each time the
many
again,
old riem
rope broke and each time his fall was greater, because Jakhals always pulled him up a little
and a
higher,
out
little
At
higher.
last
he called
:
"
'
very kind of you, Jakhals, but
It's
must give "
Ach
'
it
!
I
up.'
but that's a shame
' !
said Jakhals,
The carbonaatjes pretending to be sorry. alle wereld! are done to a turn, and the smell '
fine
it's
Shall
!
of the meat "
'
Yes
a piece
?
Jakhals,'
please,
eagerly, licking his inside
Oom down
throw
I
'
'
lips.
me and some
I
said
Leeuw
have a big hole
carbonaatjes will
fill
it
nicely.'
"
Ach
my
what did
cunning raked a red-hot carefully stone out of the fire and wrapped a big piece !
Jakhals do
of
fat
?
round
baasjes,
He
it.
Then he peered over
the
JAKHALS FED OOM LEEUW
23
edge of the krantz and saw Leeuw waiting impatiently. "
'
Now
Oom,' he
called,
'open your mouth It's such a nice
wide and
I'll
big one,
bet you won't want another.'
"
I
drop
And when
this in.
he said
this,
while Mrs. Jakhals and the
up with " " his
'
'
fell
ones doubled
silent laughter at the great joke.
Are you
ready, '
Grr-r-r-r-r
!
Oom ?
'
gurgled Leeuw.
mouth wide open
He
for fear of missing
Jakhals leaned over and took aim. the
tit-bit
swallowed
"And
and
had
to catch the carbonaatje,
and he would not speak "
Jakhals chuckled, little
sluk
sluk
!
!
it.
Down
Leeuw had
it.
then,
my
baasjes, there arose such a
roaring and raving and groaning as had not
been heard since the
hills
The
were made.
dassies crept along the rocky ledges far above,
and peeped timidly down
;
the circling eagles
swooped nearer to find out the cause the meerkats and ant-bears, the porcupines and ;
spring-hares snuggled further into their holes
;
while the frightened springboks and elands
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
24
fled swiftly
over the plain to seek safety
some other
veld.
in
"
Only wicked Jakhals and his family With their bushy tails waving and rejoiced. their pointed ears standing up, they
round the
"
'
Arre
Arre
!
!
Who
holding hands and singing-
fire,
over and over
danced
:
who is stronger than the King of Beastland ? who sees further than the King of Birdland ? but thick-tailed Jakhals, but the Silver-maned
One? He, the small but sly one ; he, the wise Planmaker. King of Beasts would catch him catch him, claw ;
him,
Ha
!
ha
!
ha
kill
him
kill !
!
would catch him
him
!
Ha
!
ha ha !
!
would
!
But he finds a way out grills the fat-tailed hamel, Feeds the King of Beastland with the juicy tit-bits; Eats the fat-tailed hamel while the King lies dying; ;
Ha!
ha! ha!
now
'
lies
dying!
Ha! ha! ha!
lies
dead
"
!
Outa crooned the Jakhals' triumph song in a weird monotone, and on the last words his voice silence
leaving a momentary the small folk.
quavered
among
out,
Pietie blinked as
though the
firelight
were
JAKHALS FED OOM LEEUW too
much
his
for
Little
eyes.
Willem cleared
tumultuously.
25
Jan sighed
his throat.
"
Oom
But how did Jakhals know that Leeuw was dead?" he asked suddenly.
"He
peeped over the krantz every time between the dancing and singing like this, Outa's eyes, head and
baasje, just like this."
"
The first time he looked, he saw Oom Leeuw rolling over and over the next time Leeuw was scratching, hands were at work.
;
scratching at the rocky krantz
;
then he was
digging into the ground with his claws he was only blowing himself out so long slow breaths
Oh
!
I
thing.
nicest "
with
but the last time he was
still,
die," said little Jan. little
then
and then Jakhals knew" didut want poor Steenbokje
lying quite "
;
;
Outa,
to
"He this
was such a pretty is not one of your
stories."
It's all
about
killing," said Pietie.
"First
poor Steenbokje, who never did him any harm, and then Jakhals killed Oom Leeuw, who never did kirn any harm. It
Leeuw
killed
was very
cruel
and wicked."
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
26 "
Ach
yes, baasjes," explained Outa, apolo"
we
getically,
don't
know why,
but
it is
so.
Sometimes the good ones are killed and the bad ones grow fat. In this old world it goes not always so's
must go
it
;
it
just
go
so's
it
goes."
"But," persisted Pietie, "you oughtn't to have let Jakhals kill Oom Leeuw. Oom
Leeuw was much have
killed
Outa's
stronger, so he ought to
naughty Jakhals."
gleamed
eyes
These
pityingly.
What did they know of the young things ups and downs of a hard world where the !
battle
is
not always to the strong, nor the race
to the swift "
the
?
my baasje, Outa He only put in story.
did not
But,
make up
little bits, like
the
newspaper and the spectacles and the Jew But the smouse, that are things of to-day. real story
was made
long, long ago, perhaps
when
baasje's people went about in skins the Rooi Kafirs, and Outa's people were
monkeys been
so,
in
and
the it
bushveld. will
It
like still
has always
always be so
in
the
JAKHALS FED OOM LEEUW story
and
head,
my
wicked world.
in the old
It is
27 the
baasjes, the head," he tapped his
own, "and not the strong arms and legs and teeth, that makes one animal master over
Ach
another.
yes
if
!
the Bushman's head
had been the same as the white man's, arre what a fight there would have been between !
them
" !
And
astonishing train of thought called up by this idea, he sat gazing out lost in the
before him with eyes which saw
many
strange
Then, rousing himself, with a quick change of voice and manner, "Ach! please, " Nooi he said in a wheedling tone, " a span things.
!
of tobacco
just
one
little
span for to-night
and to-morrow." His mistress laughed indulgently, and, unhooking the bunch of keys from her belt,
handed them sinner
" !
to
Cousin Minnie.
she said.
"
We
all
"
The
spoil him,
old
and
who could begin to be strict with him now? Only a small piece, Minnie." " Thank you, thank you, my Nonnie," said
yet
the old man, holding out both
hands, and
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
28
receiving the coveted span as " That's thing very precious.
if it
were some-
my young lady!
Nonnie can have Outa's skeleton when he dead.
it
to
send
Nonnie
be a
will
Yes,
skeleton
fine
is
for
across the blue water,
far
where she sent the old long-dead Bushman's bones. Ach foei all of him went into a little !
soap boxie " boxie
think
to
just
of
it
a soap
!
!
He
started as a
her appearance.
How
already. is
young coloured "
O
mij lieve
the time goes
!
here
;
night,
Nooi
;
masters.
night,
Sleep well family Van der Merwe
and
fainter,
the distance, as his
away.
and
!
Lys
Night,
the
little
beautiful
" !
His thanks, farewells and fainter
!
Nonnie and
Ach
!
is
when a person
with the baasjes and the noois
Baas
made
girl
flatteries
finally died
grew
away in granddaughter led him
III.
WHO WAS "
KING?
ONCE upon
a time," began Outa Karel, and his audience of three looked up expectantly. " Once upon a time, Oom Leeuw roared
and the
forest
Then, from
shook with the dreadful sound.
far
away over
another roar, and the
little
the vlakte, floated lion
cubs jumped
about and stood on their heads, tumbling over each other in their merriment.
"'Hear/ they Three
Sticks.
our father.
no
said,
'it
is
Volstruis,
old
He tries to imitate the King, He roars well. Truly there is
difference.'
"
When Leeuw
heard
he was very angry, so he roared again, louder than ever. Again came back the sound over the veld, as if it
had been an echo.
this
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
30 "
'
Ach, no!
Leeuw.
I
pudence. imitators "
do,'
to
King
thought this
im-
and
here,
want none.'
I
and roamed over the
forth
he met old Three
till
Ostrich.
am
alone
I
So he went
vlakte
never
this will
must put a stop
'
Sticks,
the
stood glaring at each other.
They
"
Leeuw's eyes flamed, his mane rose in a huge mass and he lashed his tail angrily. Volstruis spread out his beautiful wings and
swayed from his it
side to side, his
neck twisting
was
pretty, but
beak open and
Ach whip-snake. baasjes could have seen
like a if
!
Baasjes know, Volstruis's eyes are very soft and beautiful like Nonnie's when she tells the Bible stories but now there was his eyes
!
;
only fierceness
in
that looked like "
way
"So
'
We
Volstruis so,
roared,
It
yet.
was
Leeuw came must see who
You, Volstruis, please '
throat,
fight
of meeting.
step nearer and said, baas.
lights
fire.
But there was no
only their
and yellow
them,
to roar a
blowing
Hoo-hoo-hoor-r-r-r
!
It
is
little.'
out
'
a
his
was a
WHO WAS sound
fearsome
makes you
feel
the
KING? sound
of
sort
31 that
streams of cold water run-
down your back when you hear it suddenly and don't know what it is. Yes, ning
baasjes,
you are
if
in
bed you
up and
curl
over your head, and if you are outside you run in and get close to the Nooi or Nonnie." pull the blankets
A
slight
movement, indicative of contra-
passed from one to another of his small hearers, but unless it was a free and diction,
easy, conversational evening
they
made
it
a point of honour never to interrupt Outa in full career. This, like other things, could
await the finish of the story. "
Then Leeuw
were the same. a bigger voice,' or
No '
truly the voices
one could
That
is
'
say,
This
is
a more terrifying
No, they were just equal.
voice.'
"
and
roared,
So Leeuw
are
alike.
Let
it
You
then be
Birds as
I
said to Volstruis,
are
so.
am King
my
You
equal
will
Our
'
in
who
is
roaring.
be King of the
of the Beasts.
us go hunting and see
voices
Now
baas there.'
let
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
32 "
Out
big
feeding,
Leeuw
some sassaby
the vlakte
in
ones, a
fat
nice
l
were
klompje
started off in one direction
;
so
and Vol-
both kept away from the side the wind came from. Wild bucks struis in the other, but
can smell little
puff
ach toch
when a hunter
them, and at once air
sniff,
sniff,
the wind.
so
!
all
sniff-
Dust
is
good.
;
one
creeping up to the heads are in the is
and they are off like all you see, and when
blown away ach no there are no " the whole veld is empty, empty
that has
bucks
Just
!
!
Outa stretched out them from
his
arms and waved
side to side with an exaggerated
nothing but empty space, his voice mournful with a sense of expression
of
finding
irreparable loss. "
But
"
he took up his "
energy hunters.
nearer 1
with renewed
Leeuw and Volstruis were old They knew how to get nearer and
without
letting
the
bucks
know.
Sassaby (also spelt Sesseby) or Bastard Hartebeest are smaller than the Hartebeest proper, and are found
much in
tale
open veld near
forest country.
WHO WAS Leeuw
trailed himself
KING?
33
along slowly, slowly,
and only when he was moving could you see which was Leeuw and which was sand the colour was just the same. close to the ground,
:
"He
picked out a big buck, well-grown and fat, but not too old to be juicy, and when he got near enough he hunched himself up
very quietly
so,
my
little
masters, just so
ready to spring, and then before you could whistle, he shot through the air like a stone
from a catapult, and
fell, fair
and square, on
to the sassaby's back, his great tearing claws
on
fastened
its
shoulders
and
his
wicked
teeth meeting in the poor thing's neck. "
Ach
!
the
beautiful
big buck
Never
!
again would his pointed horns tear open his enemies Never again would he lead the !
herd, or pronk in the veld in mating time
Never again would danger
his
in the distance,
soft
nostrils
let
go
till
scent
nor his quick hoofs
give the signal for the stampede was really all up with him this time
Oom Leeuw
!
No,
!
!
it
When
gets hold of a thing, he doesn't
it is
dead.
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
34 "
The
rest of the
Soon they were distance
;
far
herd
ach, but they ran
!
in the
away, only specks
except those that Volstruis had
all
Truly Volstruis was clever Baasjes know, he can run fast faster even than the killed.
!
So when he saw Leeuw getting
sassaby.
ready to spring, he raced up-wind as hard as he could, knowing that was what the
So there he was waiting them, and didn't he play with them See,
herd would do. for
!
baasjes, he stood just so
Outa rose and struck an
"
in his
excitement "
attitude
and when
they streaked past him he jumped like this, striking at them with the hard, sharp claws
on
his
old two toes."
Outa hopped about
a fighting bantam, while the children hugged themselves in silent delight.
like
"
Voerts
kicked to
another!"
there
!
"
was one dead
the right.
"
Voerts
he kicked to the
left
!
!
there "till
Outa was there
was a klomp of bucks lying about the veld Yes, old Two Toes giving their last blare. did his "
work
well that day.
When Leeuw came
up and saw
that Vol-
WHO WAS had
struis
KING?
35
more than he had, he was
killed
not very pleased, but Volstruis soon
made
it
all right.
"
you "
Leeuw
said,
'You have
open and begin
rip
'Oh I
"
most, so
to eat.'
no!' said Volstruis, 'you have cubs
to share the food with, so eat.
killed
you
rip
open and
shall only drink the blood.'
This put Leeuw
in
a good humour
he
;
thought Volstruis a noble, unselfish creature.
But
as
truly,
he had no
Therefore he
was ;
'
said,
You
eat
;
I
only drink the blood.'
"So Leeuw ate
ripped
till
came along
struis
sk-r-r-r-r,
open
and called the cubs, and they Then Volthey were satisfied.
sk-r-r-r-r all
Volstruis
But he didn't want Leeuw
teeth.
know.
will
before,
Baasjes see, he couldn't eat meat
clever.
to
said
I
in
a careless fashion, peck-
pecking as he walked, and drank the Then he and Leeuw lay down in blood. ing,
the
shade
of
some
trees
and went
to
sleep.
"
The
cubs
played
about,
rolling
and
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
36
As
tumbling over each other. they came "
'
Aha
mouth "
'
'
said
!
they played
where Volstruis
lay.
he sleeps with his
one,
open.'
He
Aha
'
to the place
Volstruis's
into
peeped
'
mouth.
he said again, I see something.' "Another cub came and peeped. " Alle kracht he said, I see something '
!
'
'
'
!
Let us go and
too.
our
tell
father.'
"
So they ran off in great excitement and woke Leeuw. Come, come quickly,' they '
'
said. is
Volstruis
your equal. with
trees
his
have peeped teeth !
"
and behold, he has no
it,
see for yourself.'
Leeuw bounded
off quick-quick with the
tail.
'
nier-r-r-r.
lies
you by saying he sleeping under the
mouth wide open, and we
into
Nier-r-r-r,' '
He
Come and
cubs at his "
insults
he growled, waking Volstruis,
What
is
the meaning of this
?
You
pretend you are my equal, and you haven't even got teeth.' "
'
Teeth or no teeth/
ing up wide awake,
'
I
said Volstruis, stand-
killed
more bucks than
WHO WAS
Teeth or no
you did to-day. to
you "
show who's
Come
'
'
on,' said
No, wait a
Leeuw.
there
and
come out That
Leeuw
fight
'
Who's
afraid
!
said Volstruis.
see
that
?
'
'
I've
ant-heap over it,
stand on the other side, and we'll see
who can push '
I'll
Well, you stand on one side of
?
I'll
"
teeth,
Come on
little,'
You
got a plan.
37
baas.'
I'm just ready for you. "
KING?
it
over
first.
After that we'll
open and fight.' seems an all-right plan,'
into the
said
and he thought to himself, I'm heavier and stronger I can easily send the '
;
;
ant-heap flying on to old Three Sticks, and then spring over and kill him.' "
But wait a
bit!
It
was not as easy as
he thought. Every time he sprang at the ant-heap he clung to it as he was accustomed to cling to his prey. He had no other way of doing things.
And
then Volstruis would
take the opportunity of kicking high into the air, sending the sand and stones into Leeuw's face,
rage.
and making him howl and splutter with
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
38 "
Sometimes he would stand
still
and
roar,
and Volstruis would send a roar back from the other side. "
So they went on
till
the top of the ant-
heap was quite loosened by the kicks and Leeuw was getting angrier and blows. angrier,
and he could hardly see
were so
full
He
of dust.
his eyes
gathered himself
together for a tremendous spring, but, before he could make it, Volstruis bounded into the
and kicked the whole top Arre, but the dust was thick
air
"
When
off the ant-heap. !
cleared away, there lay Leeuw,
it
groaning and coughing, with the great heap of earth and stones on top of him. "
my
Ohe
ohe!' wailed the cubs, 'get up, father. Here he comes, the Toothless '
One!
!
He who
Get up and "
slay him.'
Leeuw shook
and sprang full
has teeth only on his feet!
of sand
he missed. struis
shot
himself free of the earth
but his eyes were he could not see properly, so
at Volstruis, ;
As he came down out
his
strong
heavily, Vol-
right
leg
and
WHO WAS caught Leeuw
in
the side.
the skin, and goops
Oom
KING?
Leeuw, with
the teeth of old
!
39
Sk-r-r-r-r
goops
over
!
!
fell
went poor
Volstruis's terrible claws
Two Toes
fastened into
him. "
Volstruis danced on him,
flapping and
waving his beautiful black and white wings, and tearing the life out of Oom Leeuw. "
When
it
was
all
he cleaned his
over,
claws in the sand and waltzed
away slowly over the veld to where his mate sat on the nest.
"
Only the cubs were left wailing over the dead King of the Forest."
The
usual babel of question and
broke out at the close of the Pietie's
story,
comment till
decided young voice detached
at last itself
from the general chatter. "
Outa, what
made you say
that about pull-
ing the blankets over one's head and running
near to get o
Mammie
bellowing at night that none of us
?
if
one heard Volstruis
You know
would ever do
it."
quite well
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
40 "
Yes, yes,
my
baasje,
know," said Outa,
I
"
never meant anyone who But other belongs to the land of Volstruise. I
soothingly.
little
who
masters,
know
did not
the voice of
Three Sticks
old
mam-mas "
Oh,
if
they would run to their they heard him."
see,"
I
said
accepting the was sure you could
Pietie,
"
I apology graciously. not mean a karroo farm boy."
"Is your story a parable, Outa?" asked little Jan, who had been doing some hard thinking for the last minute.
"Ach
"A "
!
and what
kind of
is
a
Yes, that's what
fable,
"
it is,
a sort of nice
But a parable
master?"
Outa."
fable,
baasje," said Outa,
word he understood,
gladly seizing on the "
my little
that,
little
fable."
an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, and when Cousin Minnie tells us parables she always finds the mean-
What
ing for
us.
of
Outa?"
this,
is
is
the heavenly meaning
grey eyes were earnestly fixed on Outa's face, as though to read Little Jan's innocent
WHO WAS from
it
was nonplussed.
He
rubbed
kopdoek, laid a crooked finger thought-
against his
fully
41
For once
the explanation he sought.
the old native his red
KING?
nose, scratched his sides,
flat
monkey-fashion, and finally once more to the kopdoek. failed
expedients
to
had But
recourse all
these
him with the
inspire
heavenly meaning of the story he had just Ach these dear little ones, to think of told. !
such strange things There they all were, He must get waiting for his next words. out of it somehow. !
<(
Baasjes," he began, smoothly, "there
a beautiful
meaning
to the story, but
hasn't
time
tell
got
now.
it
Outa," broke
in
Willem,
"you know you only want that
Outa
Another
"
time "
to
is
you can go
to
reprovingly,
get
away so
to the old tramp-floor,
where
the volk are dancing to-night." "
No,
"And
my I
baasje, truly
no
" !
wouldn't be surprised to hear that
you had danced, too, after the way you have been jumping about here."
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
42 " "
'
so
with
fine," said Pietie, is
one dead
!
Voerts
relish. !
there
'
Outa, you always say you are but you can still kick well."
stiff,
"
there
!
another
is
"
Yes, that was
Voerts
!
Aja, baasje," returned Outa, modestly;
was a great dancer. No one could do the Vastrap better and the Hondekrap and the Valsrivier. Arre, those were in
my
day
the times
I
" !
He
gave a little hop at the remembrance of those mad and merry days, and yet another and another, always towards the passage leading to the kitchen. "
But the meaning,
meaning!"
cried
little
Outa, Jan.
the
heavenly
"You
haven't
told us."
"
No, my little baas, not to-night. Ask the Nonnie she will tell you. Here she comes." ;
And
as Cousin Minnie entered the room,
the wily old native, with an agility not to
be expected from his cramped and crooked limbs, skipped away, leaving her to bear the brunt of his inability to explain his
own
story.
IV.
WHY THE HYENA "
IS
LAME.
was Tante Hyena that Jakhals cheated more than anyone," said Outa. " She always IT
forgot about the last time he had played a
on her, so she was quite ready to believe him when he came along with another story.
trick
Some
people are
kindness, p'raps
so,
my
it's
only stupidness
baasjes.
P'raps ;
it's
Outa
doesn't know.
"One day
Jakhals and Hyena were out walking together when a white cloud came up behind the kopjes and floated over the veld quite close to them. cloud, just like white
on
to
it
and
Then he "
'
sat looking
bit pieces
Arre"
!
fat,
It
was a nice thick
and Jakhals climbed
down over
out of
but this white
it,
the edge.
and ate them.
fat is nice,'
he
said.
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
44 '
N-yum, n-yum, n-yum,' and he chewed round
the cloud like a caterpillar chews a leaf. " Hyena licked her lips and looked up at
him. "
'
"
'
Throw me down some, please,' she said. Ach my Brown Sister, will I then be greedy as to throw you down little bits ? !
so
Wait
till
get down, and then
eat for
to
up
I
I'll
help you
But come a
yourself.
nearer so that you can
catch
little
me when
I
jump.' "
So
stood
Hyena
and
Jakhals a that he knocked her such way jumped into the sand. He fell soft, because he was ready,
in
on
top,
but foei
knocked
breath
poor
!
out
of
Hyena had her and
all
she
the
was
covered with dust.
"'Ach! but
I
'but never mind, "
am now
clumsy!' said Jakhals; I'll
help you.'
So when she had got up and dusted
her-
he helped her to climb on to the cloud. There she sat, biting pieces off and eating
self,
them,
'
N-yum, n-yum, n-yum,
white fat!'
it's
just like
WHY THE HYENA "
After
a
time
she
"
'
Please catch
"
how
He
Ola
shall
I
I
to
do
!
to
Sister,
come
catch you.
one
side,
Grey come
jump.' on.
So-o-o.'
held out his arms, but just as
Ola
!
I'll
nicely
jumped he sprang 1
me when
Ach, certainly Brown
Just see
out,
want
I
45
'
called
Brother, I've had enough.
down.
LAME
IS
Hyena
calling out,
a thorn has pricked me. What what shall I do ? and he hopped '
?
about holding one leg up. "
Woops
as she
Down
!
fell
Brown
she put out her
fell
left
and
Sister,
leg to save
doubled up under her and was She lay in a bundle in the nearly broken. sand, crying, My leg is cracked my leg is herself, but
it
'
!
'
cracked
!
"Jakhals came along very slowly jump, jump, on three legs. Surely the thorn, that wasn't there, was hurting him very "
'
Grey "
my sick
'
Oo
oo
My
And mine
leg
is
up,
broken.'
has a thorn in
How
!
it.
Foei toch,
can the sick help the only plan is for us to get home
sister
The
much
Hyena, 'help me
cried
!
Brother.
poor ?
!
'
!
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
46
in the best will visit
right/ "
And
way we
Good-bye, and
can.
you to-morrow
to see
if
you are
I
all
he went
jump, jump, on three legs very slowly; but as soon as Old Brown Sister could not see him, he put down the off
other one and
he shot over the
sh-h-h-h
veld and got
home
nice supper of
young ducks
just
time to have a
in
that Mrs. Jakhals
and the children had caught Niekerk's dam.
at
Oubaas van
"
But poor Brown Sister lay in the sand crying over her sore places, and from that
day she walks lame, because her foot 1
is
smaller than the right one."
The Hyena, on
legs fable.
left
hind
l
first starting, appears lame in the hind a fact accounted for by the Hottentots in the foregoing
V.
WHO WAS THE "
YES,
my
baasjes, so
was
THIEF?
Oom
Jakhals
he
:
always made as if he forgot all about what he had done, and he made as if he thought
He
the others forgot too, quick-quick.
all
is
maar so schelm."
Here Outa took
advantage of the pinch of snuff he held between his right forefinger and thumb, sneezed with evi-
enjoyment two
dent
continued
"When well, "
full
or
times,
and
Hyena was
quite
three
:
Jakhals thought
he went to
visit her.
'
'
very dull here in the veld,' he said, and food is so scarce, so I'm going to hire It's
myself to a farmer. eat
He'll give
me
and drink, and when I'm nice and
lots fat
to I'll
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
48
come home too, "
Brown
Would you
again.
like
to
go
Sister ?"
Hyena smacked
her
when she heard She thought it
lips
about the nice things to eat. a very good plan. So they went to a farm,
and Jakhals talked so nicely that the farmer hired them both to work for him.
"Ach!
was a
it
chickens and
sheep with melted out
beautiful
little
large for
He
of
could be
that
tails
soap and candles, and eggs,
and doves and pigeons hals liked.
lots
and Afrikander
ducks, fat
place;
all
things that Jak-
stomach that
just felt in his
he was going to have a
jolly
life.
" in
During the day Jakhals peeped all about, this corner, in that corner, and he found
out where the farmer kept the nice fat that
was melted out of the sheep's
tails.
In the
middle of the night, when all the people were fast asleep, he got up and went quietly, my baasjes, quietly, like a to the place
shadow on the ground,
where the
fat
was.
He
took a
big lump and smeared it all over Brown Then he Sister's tail while she was asleep.
WHO WAS THE ate
and went "
was
that
all
left
THIEF?
49
n-yum, n-yum, n-yum
to sleep in the
waggon-house.
morning, when the farmer went out to milk the cows, he missed the fat.
Early
"
Lieve land
'
'
said.
But "
in the
Where
!
'
is all
my
fat
?
he
must be that vagabond Jakhals. I'll get him !'
It
wait,
He
took a thick riem and his sjambok, and went to the waggon- house to catch Jak-
asked about the little
"
'
fat,
Jakhals spoke
Ach
the
no,
Baas
!
And
?
look at
I
my
then do such tail.
There's
tail is full
turned round and waved his
that there
'
Would
The one whose
the farmer's face, and
'
little,
of fat
thief.'
"He
"
a
in
voice.
an ugly thing no fat on it. is
But when he
and give him a beating.
hals
was no
But the
someone
fat
must
fat is
anyone could on it.
tail in
easily see
gone,' said the farmer,
have
stolen
went on hunting, hunting
in
it,'
the
and
he
waggon-
house.
"At
last
he came to where Hyena was D
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
50
sleeping, just like a baby, baasjes, so nicely,
and snoring a
little
:
not the loud snoring
like
sawing planks gorr-korrr, gorr-korr but nice soft snoring like people do when they sleep very the
deepest
fast
and her
Aha
!
was sticking out behind
tail
here
!
is
and he began
farmer,
is
when a person snores Hyena's head was on some
her, stiff with fat " '
It
sleep
see-uw, see-uw. chaff,
see-uw, see-uw.
the
said
thief,'
to tie the riem
the
round
her. "
Old Brown '
eyes.
Sister sat
up and rubbed her
What's the matter
had a beautiful dream. eating "
'
fat
And
'
?
she asked.
I
dreamt
you were
my
fat/
"
was
I
said
farmer, and he pulled the rope tighter.
now
I
'
the whole night, and so
'
the
'And
I'm going to teach you not to steal again.'
Poor old
Brown
Sister
jumped about
when she found out what he was oa-oinoo
to do;
she ran round and round the waggon-house trying to get away she called out, and she ;
called out that she did not
know about
the
WHO WAS THE had
she
that
fat,
THIEF?
never
had never even seen
tasted
But
it.
51
and
it,
was no
it
good. "
'
Look
at
your
tail,'
'
said the farmer.
you tell me that your tail went by rubbed itself in the fat ?
itself
Will
and
'
"
So he
tied her to the
beat her, and beat her
"
ach
!
she was quite
and she screamed and screamed, and
sore last
waggon wheel and at
he drove her away from the farm.
Poor old Brown Sister
have the
from her
fat
She
!
didn't
to eat,
tail
even
because,
baasjes see, with the running round and the beating,
it
was
all
rubbed
went
to live
quite
good enough
for her."
Is that the end,
Outa?
"
"
Yes,
my
can't help
"And
it.
on a farm again
baasje. It
It's
But she never
off.
"
;
the veld was
asked Willem.
a bad end, but Outa
does maar end so."
where was Jakhals
all
the time?"
enquired Pietie, severely. "Jakhals,
my
baasje,
was
sitting
on the
waggon saying his prayers so, my baasjes." Outa put his crooked hands together and cast
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
52 his
twinkling eyes
upwards
till
only
the
yellows showed. "
'
Bezie, bezie, brame,
Hou jouw
handjes same.'
1
And
every time Hyena screamed, Jakhals begged her not to steal again, but to try and behave like a good Christian." "
But Jakhals was the thief," said little Jan, indignantly. "He was always the wicked How was one, and he was never punished. that,
Outa
A
" ?
whimsical
man's
smile
and though
face,
over the old
played
his eyes
danced as
wickedly as ever, his voice was sober as he answered. "
Ach my !
It is
maar so
little
master,
how can Outa
in this old world.
funny thing Baas Willem saw that runs
down
It's like
in the
a place so quickly that
tell?
the 2
Kaap, it
just
runs up on the other side, and then it can't stop, but it has to run down again, and 1(<
Berry, berry, blackberry,
Hold your hands 2
The Kaap
together."
Cape Town.
WHO WAS THE so
it
on
keeps
up
and
THIEF? down,
53
and
up
down." "
You
mean
the
switchback
'
?
asked
Willem. "
Ach, yes baasje, Outa means so. And the world it is the same up and down, up !
in
and down.
And
good ones are down and the bad ones are up. But the thing
Outa
and
often the
can't get the
name
right
goes
on, goes on, and by-and-by the good ones are up and the bad ones are down." " But Jakhals seemed always to be up," it
remarked Willem. "
Yes,
my
baasje,"
said
the
old
man,
"
Jakhals seemed always to be up. It goes so sometimes, it goes so," but his eyes suddenly had a far-away look, and one
soberly.
could not be certain that he was thinking of Jakhals.
VI.
THE
SUN.
A BUSHMAN LEGEND.
OUTA, having disposed of his nightly tot, held his crooked hands towards the cheerful blaze
and turned
nately on
it
and
his
engaging smile
alter-
his little masters.
"
Ach what it is to keep a bit of the Sun even when the Sun is gone Long ago Outa's people, the Bushmen, did not know about fire. No, my baasjes, when the Big Fire, that makes the world warm and bright, !
!
walked across the sky, they were happy. They hunted, and danced, and feasted.
They
shot the fine big bucks with their
little
poisoned arrows, and they tore pieces off and ate the flesh with the red blood dripping from it they had no fire to make it dry up. And :
THE SUN
55
the roots and eintjes that they their sharp stones
dug out with
those, too, they ate just
as they were.
did the
They did not cook, for they not know how to make fire. But when white man came, then they learnt. Baas-
jes see, Outa's
Baas's head
head
big bigger than the but that does not help. It's is
the inside that matters, and the white man's
head inside here "
forehead
"In
Alia
"
!
-Outa tapped but
his wrinkled
can hold a
it
lot
!
when Outa's people
the olden days,
were cold they crept into caves and covered themselves with skins, for they had no fire to sit
Yes, they were sorry
by.
Man down
in the
when
the Old
sky put down his arms and lay
to sleep."
"What Old Man?"
asked
Pietie.
"Do
you mean the Sun?" "
Aja Don't baasjes then know that the Sun was once a man? It was long, long !
ago, before Outa's people lived in the world
:
perhaps in the days of the Early Race that were before even the Flat Bushmen, who
were
the
first
people
we
really
know
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
56
In those days at a certain
anything about.
place lived a man, from
When
ness streamed.
him was
light
only shone ;
it
when he
but
;
the light shone
"
lifted
bright-
one arm, the
light
when he
;
the other arm, the place on that side of
lifted
lived
he
him was
place on that side of
it
whose armpits
lifted
both arms,
around about him.
all
But
around the place where he
did not reach to other places.
Sometimes the people asked him
on a stone, so that
to stand
his light could
go farther and sometimes he climbed on a kopje and
lifted
his
up
streamed out for miles
arms far, far,
and
miles.
ach
:
then
!
;
the
light
and lighted up the veld For the higher he went,
the farther the light shone. "
Then
the people said
' :
We
see now, the
shines. the farther his light he goes higher o o o If only we could put him very high, his light
would go out over the whole "
So they
a wise old
tried to
woman
make
world.'
a plan, and at last
called the
young people must You and said go to this together man from whose armpits the light streams. '
:
THE SUN When
he
is
57
you must go
asleep,
;
and the
strongest of you must take him under the armpits, and
lift
and
so
fro
so
him
and swing him to and throw him as high as up,
you can into the sky, so that he above the kopjes, light
down
stream
arms
lifting his
to
warm
may
be
to let the
the earth and
make green things to grow in summer.' " So the young men went to the place where the man lay sleeping. Quietly they went,
my
baasjes, creeping along in the red
sand so as not to wake him.
deep
sleep,
men took him under
and swung him to and old woman had told them.
pits
swung him, they threw him "
and there he
The
in
a
fro,
the arm-
as the wise
Then, as they
into the air, high,
stuck.
next morning, when he awoke and
stretched light
was
and before he could wake the
strong young
high,
He
up his arms, the streamed out from under them and
brightened
himself,
all
lifting
the world,
warming
the earth,
and making the green things grow. And so it went on day after day. When he put up
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
58
his arjns,
was
it
bright,
he put down one arm, weather was not clear.
it it
was day. When was cloudy, the
And when he
down both arms and turned over was no
sleep, there it
was
night.
light at all
:
to
put
go
to
was dark
it
But when he awoke and
;
lifted
day came again and the world was warm and bright.
his arms, the
"
Sometimes he
Then
it
comes
is
cold
:
is
far
it is
away from
But when he
winter.
near, the earth gets
the earth.
warm
again
;
the
green things grow and the fruit ripens it is summer. And so it goes on to this day, my ;
baasjes winter,
:
the
and
all
day and
night,
because the Old
summer and
Man
with the
bright armpits was thrown into the sky." "
But the Sun
downright
is
Willem,
not a man, Outa," said
"and
he
hasn't
any
arms."
"No, my baasje, not now. He is not a man any more. But baasjes must remember how long he has been up in the sky spans, and spans, and spans of years, always rolling round, and rolling round, from the time he
THE SUN wakes
the morning
in
59
he
till
lies
down
And
sleep at the other side of the world.
with
the
he has
baasjes,
rolling,
to
all
got
rounder and rounder, and the light that at first came only from under his arms has been
round him,
now he
a big ball rolling from one side of the sky to
rolled right
of light,
till
is
the other."
Cousin Minnie, who had been listening
in
a desultory way to the fireside chatter, as she wrote at the side-table, started and leant
toward the
but a single glance was enough to show that so interested were the children in the personal aspect of the tale that there
little
was no
group
;
fear of confusion arising in
minds from Outa's decided subversion
their
of an elementary fact which she had been at
some pains
to get
them
understand and
to
accept.
"And
his arms, Outa," inquired
in his earnest
now
way,
Jan,
"do they never come
out
^ r
Outa beamed upon him proudly. that
little
is
my
little
master
!
Always
"
Ach
!
to ask a
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
60
Yes, baasje, sometimes they come When it is a dark day, then he has put
big thing out.
his
arms
!
He
out.
is
holding them down, and
spreading his hands before the it
can't shine
And
on the world.
he gets up
just before
before he goes
to
in the
at
sleep
light,
so that
sometimes,
morning, and night,
haven't
baasjes seen long bright stripes coming from " the round ball of light ? o
"Yes, yes," assented
his
little
listeners,
eagerly.
"Those
are the long fingers of the Sun.
His arms are
rolled
up
inside the fiery ball,
but he sticks his long fingers out and they make bright roads into the sky, spreading out all round him. The Old Man is peeping at the earth
through
his
fingers.
must count them next time he out,
and see
if
they are
all
there
ones, those are the fingers ones for the thumbs."
;
Baasjes
sticks
them
eight long
and two short
Outa's knowledge of arithmetic was limited to the
number
of his crooked digits,
and the
smile with which he announced the extent of
THE SUN
61
mathematical attainments was a ludicrous
his
cross
between proud triumph and modest
reluctance. "
When
Then
he
lies
down, he
pulls
them
in.
the world grows dark and the people
all
to sleep."
go
"
But, Outa,
Pietie
it
isn't
always dark at night," "
reminded him.
There are the Stars
and the Moon, you know." "
Ach, yes
The
!
Outa
Moon.
will tell
another night, but quick and
When
let
friend
!
but
baasjes,
the baasjes about
them
now he must go quick
it
stiff,
can
and the rheumatism
pinch
Outa cooks
Therefore,
!
my
bossies from the veld to
buchu and kookamakranka and
rub on karroo
bossies.
buchu
is
outside,
Lady
Lys rub his back with buchu. Old Ao-e o comes the back bends
and the bones get foei
Stars and the
little
the
They best.
are
Yes,
and the Baas's
all
good,
buchu
fire-water
but
for
the
for
the
inside !"
He
looked longingly at the cupboard, but wood and glass are unresponsive until acted
62
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
on by human agency
;
so,
possessing
no
"Open, Sesame" for that unyielding lock, Outa contented himself by smacking his lips as he toddled away.
VII.
THE STARS AND THE DARKLY-BLUE and
STARS' ROAD.
illimitable, the arc of the
sky hung over the great Karroo of softest velvet, for
background
like
a canopy
making a deep, mysterious the
myriad
which
stars,
twinkled brightly at a frosty world.
The
three
gathered at the window, pointed out to each other the constellations with which Cousin Minnie had
made them
and were deep in a disthe nature and number of the
composing the Milky
shuffled "
Way when
Outa
in.
Outa, do you think there are a billion
up there Willem. stars
"
boys,
familiar,
cussion as to stars
little
A
billion,
in
the
Milky
Way
" ?
you know," explained
asked
Pietie,
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
64
"is a thousand million, and
months
to
"
Aja,
would take
it
count even one million."
baasje," said the old
man
word and making
it
his
"
own,
readily,
unknown
seizing, with native adroitness, the
then there
surely be a billion stars up there.
will
Perhaps,"
he added, judicially considering the matter, "two billion, but no one knows, because no
one can ever count them.
And
many. the sky
He little
"
is
are
They
too
to think that that bright road in
made
settled
of
wood
ashes, after all."
himself on his stool, and his
audience came to attention.
Yes,
baasjes," he
my
"
went
on,
long,
long ago, the sky was dark at night when the Old Man with the bright armpits lay down to sleep, but people learned in time to make fires to light
a
girl,
who
up the darkness sat
warming
;
and one night
herself
by a wood
She took the played with the ashes. ashes in her hands and threw them up to see fire,
how the
pretty they were air.
And
when they
as they floated
green bushes on the
fire
and
floated in
away she put
stirred
it
with a
"The
Stars'
Road" Face page 64
THE STARS
65
Bright sparks flew out and went high, high, mixing with the silver ashes, and they all hung in the air and made a bright road stick.
And
across the sky. call
Baasjes it
there
the Milky
it
to this day.
it is
Way, but Outa
calls
the Stars' Road.
"Ai! but the
was pleased! She clapped
girl
her hands and danced, shaking herself like Outa's people do when they are happy, and singing '
:
The
The tiny stars a for other stars. make road They Ash of wood-fire Dust of the Sun They call the Dawn when Night is done little stars
!
!
!
"
!
Then she took some
' !
of the roots she had
been eating and threw them into the sky, and there they hung and turned into large stars.
The
old roots turned into stars that
gave a red
and the young roots turned into stars that gave a golden light. There they all hung, winkYes, singing, ing and twinkling and singing. light,
my
baasjes, '
and
We
this is
what they sang
are children of the
It's
so
!
It's
so
!
Sun
It's
so
!
!
:
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
66
Him we It's
so
when Night
call
so
It's
!
!
done!
is
so
It's
!
Bright we sail across the sky By the Stars' Road, high, so high;
And
we, twinkling, smile at you,
As we It's
"
sail
so
across the blue It's
!
so
when
Baasjes know,
!
It's
!
so
the stars twinkle up
there in the sky they are like
nodding It's
so!
' !
little
children
heads and saying, 'It's so! so!' At each repetition Outa
their It's
nodded and winked, and the
children, with
antics of approval, followed suit. "
Baasjes have sometimes seen a star
Three "
heads nodded
little
When
a star "
pressively,
For the fails
1
It
star
tell
and
im-
died.
person's heart it
falls
from the
those at a distance that someone
know has is
man
someone has
knows when a dies,
?"
in concert.
said the old
us
tells
and the person
sky to they
it
falls,"
fall
died.
1
both curious and interesting to find the identical
amongst races so widely different as the Scandinavians of Northern Europe and the Bushmen of South Africa. See Hans Andersen's Little Match Girl:
belief obtaining
"
Her Grandmother had
told her that
a soul mounted up to God."
when a
star
fell
down
THE STARS "
One
star
grew and grew
larger than the others. Star, and, singing,
He
67
he was much
till
He
was the Great
he named the other
stars.
one by name, till they all had their names, and in this way they knew that he was the Great Star. No other could have called each
done
Then when he had
so.
finished, they
sang together and praised the Great who had named them.
all
Star,
1
"
Now, when
the day
is
done, they walk
across the sky on each side of the Stars'
Road.
shows them the way. And when over, they turn back and sail again
It
Night
is
by the
Stars'
Road
to call the
Daybreak, that
goes before the Sun. The Star that leads He is called the way is a big bright star. the Dawn's- Heart Star, and in the dark, dark hour, before the Stars have called the
ach
he shines behold
!
The
baasjes, he
!
wife
and the
Dawn's- Heart Star are
1
"
When
beautiful to child
They
sail
the morning stars sang together, and
God shouted
for joy."
Job
of the
pretty, too, but not
so big and bright as he.
of
is
Dawn,
xxxviii. 7.
all
on
in
the sons
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
68
and then they wait wait for the other Stars to turn back and sail along the Stars' front,
Road,
Sun
to
Dawn, and
calling, calling the
come up from under
for the
the world, where
he has been lying asleep. "
They
and
call
twinkling as they
sing,
sing :'
We
call across
Dawn
the sky,
Come, Dawn
!
You, that are like a
Rubbing the
!
young maid newly
sleep from your eyes
You, that come stretching bright hands Pointing the way for the Sun
risen,
!
to the sky,
!
Before whose smile the Stars faint and grow pale,
And the Stars' Road melts Dawn Come Dawn !
We And
call across the sky,
the Dawn's-Heart Star
It's
"
away.
!
so
!
So they
It's
so
!
It's
so
sing, baasjes,
is
waiting.
' !
because they
know
they are soon going out. " Then slowly the Dawn comes, rubbing her eyes, smiling, stretching out bright fingers,
chasing the darkness away. faint
and the
Stars'
Road
The
Stars
grow
fades, while the
THE STARS
69
Dawn makes At
a bright pathway for the Sun. he comes with both arms lifted high,
last
and the brightness, streaming from under them, makes day for the world, and wakes people to their work and play. " But the little Stars wait till he sleeps Sumagain before they begin their singing.
mer now, will
the time
is if
when they sing
best, but
baasjes look out of the
even
window they
see the Stars, twinkling and singing."
The
children ran to the
out into the
starlit
window and gazed
heavens.
The
last sight
Outa had, as he drained the soopje glass the Baas was just in time to hand him, was of heads bobbing up and down in time to the immemorial music of the Stars, three
little
while
little
"
Yes,
'It's
it's
so!
Jan's
excited
treble
quite true, Outa. It's
so!
It's
so!'"
rang out
They
:
do say,
VIII.
WHY THE THE
HARE'S NOSE
IS SLIT.
had not yet been drawn nor the shutters closed, and little Jan looked with curtains
wide serious eyes serenely
in
at
the
the cold sky.
full
moon
sailing
Then he sighed
as
though thoughts too big for expression stirred within him, and turned absently towards the purring "
fire.
And why
does the big man make such "It is like a sighing?" asked Outa Karel. the wind in the mealie land at sun-under." eyes slowly withdrew their from some inward vision and became gaze o " conscious of the old native. Outa," he Little
said,
Jan's
"why
is
the
moon
so beautiful, and so golden "
Ach
!
to hear
him now
so far away, and " ?
!
How
can Outa
WHY tell ?
and
HARE'S NOSE
It is
maar
fire is hot,
beautiful
so.
so the
IS
SLIT
Just like grass
Moon
and golden.
is
far
But she
lady sometimes, too, and
is
71
green
away and is
a cruel
through her that the poor Little Hare runs about with a slit in his nose to-day." "Tell
us,
Outa."
it
Little
is
Jan dropped on
to the rug beside the basket of mealie-cobs,
and the others edged nearer. " And why do you call the Moon a lady asked Pietie of the inquiring mind. " But doesn't baasje know that the
" ?
Moon
O
a lady ? yes, and for all her beauty she can be cross and cruel sometimes like other is
ladies, as "
you
will hear."
Long, long ago, when the world was quite young, the Lady Moon wanted some-
one to take a message to Men. She tried first one creature and then another, but no !
they were all too busy, they couldn't go. At last she called the Crocodile. He is very slow and not much good, but the Lady Moon
thought she would pinch his tail and him go quickly. So she said to him
make ' :
Go
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
72
down
message shall
Men
to
"
As
:
you
at I
once and give them
this
die and, dying, live, so also
die, and, dying, live."
"
Baasjes know how the Moon is some" times big and round so and Outa's diminutive hands described a wide circle and
remained suspended
now
in the air
smaller and smaller, so "
clap
is
Then every
in the sky.
till
"like she
so
night she gets so so so
the crooked fingers
!
come
to-
"there's no more Moon: gether with a bang she is dead. Then one night a silver horn
hangs
in the
new Moon
sky
thin,
that grows,
very thin.
It is
the
and grows, and gets
and golden." By the aid of the small claw-like hands the moon grew to the beautiful
full
"
before
And
ing, "
so
it
children's
goes on, always
and dying, and
So
the
Crocodile's
he
the
started
interested living,
eyes.
and grow-
living again.
pinched old Oom and he gave one jump and off
Lady Moon tail,
with
quickly while the
the
message.
He
Moon watched
soon he came to a bend
in the road.
went
him, but
Round
WHY
HARE'S NOSE
IS
SLIT
73
he went with a great turn, for a Crocodile's back is stiff like a plank, he can't bend it ;
and then, when he thought he was out of drif-drafsight, he went slower and slower drippity-drif-draf,
drif-draf-drippity-drif-draf,
lazy. "
All of a
'Ha! ha! ha!' he meaning of
Where
toch too
sudden there was a noise
and there was the
sh-h-h-h-h
this
laughed,
Hare.
Little
'what
is
'
the
drif-draf-drippity-drif-draf?
are you going in such a hurry,
Crocodile "
He was
a knee-haltered horse.
like
Oom
'
?
Neef
can't
stop
to
Haasje,' said
Oom
Crocodile, trying to look
I
speak
to
you,
The Lady busy and to hurry up. has sent me with a message to Men.' '
"
'
And what
the message,
is
Moon
Oom
Cro-
'
codile
?
"'It's a very important one:
and, dying,
live,
"As
I
die
so also shall you die and,
dying, live." "
you
'
Ach, but that
is
can't ever run,
a stupid message.
Oom, you
And
are so slow.
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
74
You
can only go drif-draf-drippity-drif-draf like a knee-haltered horse, but I go sh-h-h-h-h like the wind. I
" '
take
will
Give the message
to
me and
it.'
'
Very
said
well,'
but you must say
it
the
lazy
over
first
Crocodile,
and get
it
right.'
"
So Neef Haasje
and over, and then
message over sh-h-h-h-h he was off
said the
Here he was!
like the wind.
there he was!
and you could only see the white of his tail and his little behind legs getting small in the distance.
"
At
last
he came to Men, and he called
them together and
said
' :
Listen,
Sons of the
man comes with a Lady Moon I am sent to
Baboon, a wise the
By As
"
you
:
die and, dying, perish, so shall you
I
also die "
message. tell
and come wholly
Then Men looked
to at
an end." each other and
shivered.
All of a sudden the flesh on their
arms was
like goose-flesh.
do
?
Moon
What
is
this
has sent
?
'
What
shall
we
message that the Lady "
As
I
die
and, dying,
WHY
HARE'S NOSE
perish, so shall
to
also die
you
IS
SLIT
75
and come wholly
an end." "
They
shivered again, and the goose-flesh
crept right
and
up
their hair
wide
smile
hair,
up on their heads but Outa forgets, these to rise
know how
baasjes don't the
began
ach no,
like
just
backs and into their
their
it is
which accompanied
words hid the expression of
And
to feel so."
sly teasing
these
which
sparkled in Outa's dancing black eyes, for he knew what it was to be taken to task for
impugning
the
courage of his young
lis-
teners. "
Neef Haasje did not
But
He
care.
danced away on his behind legs, and laughed and laughed to think how he had cheated
Men. "
Then he
returned again to the Moon,
and she asked
' :
What have you
said
to
Men?' "
O, Lady Moon, I have given them your " Like as I die and, dying, perish, message '
:
so also shall you die and
an end," and they are
all
come wholly stiff
with
to
fright.
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
;6
Ha of
ha ha
!
Haasje laughed
!'
!
at the
thought
it.
"
'
What
did you
donkey "
!
tell J !
cried the
them
?
!
Child of the devil's
Lady Moon
the
She took a big
angry.
what
you must be punished.' but
Ach,
that
'
Lady Moon,
stick,
was very a
kierie
much bigger than the one Outa used lions with when he was young and could have hit him, then"
to kill if
she
Outa shook
his
"
there would have been head hopelessly no more Little Hare his head would have :
But he been cracked right through. slim kerel. When he saw the big near, one, two, three, he
coming
slipped away, and
it
is
a
stick
ducked and
caught him only on the
nose. "
Foei
the at 1
but
that
forgot yelled
!
it
the
was sore
Moon was
and screamed
air
once
;
;
According
the donkey.
!
;
Neef Haasje a
Lady.
He
he jumped high into
he jumped with all his four feet and scratch, scratch, scratch, he to a Hottentot legend, the hare
is
related to
WHY
HARE'S NOSE
IS
SLIT
77
was kicking, and hitting and clawing the Moon's face till the pieces flew. "
Then he
felt
hard as he could,
and ran away as holding his broken nose better
with both hands. "
And
with a
that
is
split nose,
why
to-day he goes about
and the golden
Lady Moon has long dark "
Yes,
baasjes,
face of the
scars.
fighting
is
miserable
a
over.
does not end when the fight is Afterwards there is a sore place ach,
for so
long
thing.
It
!
and even when
it
is
well, the
ugly marks remain to show what has happened. The best, my little masters, is not to fight at all."
IX.
HOW THE JACKAL GOT
HIS STRIPE.
"THE Sun was a strange little child," said " He never had any Pap-pa or MamOuta. ma. No one knew where he came from. He was
just found
by the roadside.
"In the olden days when the men of the Ancient Race the old, old people that lived were trekking
so long ago
in
search of game,
It they heard a little voice calling, calling. was not a springbokkie, it was not a tarentaal, it
was not a
what
it
little ostrich.
was.
Outa's head
But
it
nodded
They
couldn't think
kept on, it kept on." in time to his repeti-
tions.
"
Why
didn't they
go and look
" ?
asked
Willem. "
They
did,
my
baasje.
They hunted about
HOW JACKAL GOT
HIS STRIPE
79
amongst the milk-bushes by the roadside, and at last under one of them they found a nice
brown baby.
He was
still
looking about him, not like a baby, baasjes, but like an old child, and sparks of light, as bright as lying quite
the sparks from Outa's tinderbox,
When
out of his eyes.
fly
seemed
to
he saw the men,
he began calling again. "
'
Carry me, carry
me
carry
Pick
!
me up and
!
"'Arre! he can a fine
me
'
child
little
talk, 'said
the man.
'What
Where have your people
!
'
gone ? and why did they leave you here ? " But the little Sun wouldn't answer them. All he said was,
I'm tired "
One
;
I
'
Put
me
can't walk.'
of the
men went
when he got near he
to take '
said,
the heat comes out of him. "
'
How
man.
'
can you be so
7'11
Soe
/
!
him
up, but
but he's hot
;
won't take him.' '
silly
?
said another
carry him.'
"
'
your awa-skin.
in
But when he got near, he started back. Fire comes out of them.' Alia what eyes !
And
!
he, too, turned
away.
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
8o
"Then
he said
small,'
Sun under '
Ohe
baby on toverij
"
his arms. '
The
others
come
didn't
ohe"
!
It is like
me when
burns
very can easily put him in my stooped and took the little
!
he
to the red sand.
!
is
I
;
ohe"
!
'He
went.
'
He
awa-skin.'
"
man
a third
I
cried, '
dropping the
What
is
this for
He
under his arms.
fire
take him up.'
all
came round
too near,
my
to see.
They
baasjes, because they
were frightened, but they wanted to see the strange brown baby that could talk, and that burned
like a fire.
"All on a sudden he stretched himself; he turned his head and put up his little arms. Bright sparks flew from his eyes, and yellow light
streamed from under his arms, and
hierr, skierr
the
Men
of the Early
Race
fell
over each other as they ran through the milkbushes back to the road. My but they were !
frightened "
!
The women were
babies
on
husbands.
their
sitting there with their
backs,
waiting
for
their
HOW JACKAL GOT "
Come
HIS STRIPE
81
See that Hurry hurry along you get away from here/ said the men, with'
!
!
!
out stopping. " "
The women began to run, too. What was it ? What did you
"
'
A
'
terrible something,' said the '
running.
know
it is
It
his
in
a mensevreter.
There
awa-skin, but as tries
?
men,
pretends to be a baby, but
sand, begging one of us to pick it
'
find
to
burn us
near,
it
make
haste and get
;
it
it
lies in
still
we the
up and put
soon as we go
and
away from
if
we
here,
don't it
will
certainly catch us.' "
Then they ran faster than ever. Baasjes know ach no " corrected Outa, with a sly " Outa means baasjes don't know smile !
;
how
people's feet,
the
makes wings grow on So so that they seem to fly.
frightenness
Men
of the Early Race, and the
women
with their babies on their backs, flew, and
very soon they were far from the place where the "
little
Sun was
lying.
But someone had
been watching, baasjes, watching from a bush near by.
my It
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
82
was Jakhals, with his bright eyes and his sharp nose, and his stomach close to the
When
ground.
people had
the
had made them
crept out to see what
to
leaf stirred, not a
where the "
'
little
Ach, what a
behind by the
it
Sun
lay.
has been
fine little child
men
shame
really a
run.
sound was heard, he crept along under the milk-bushes
Hardly a so softly
he
gone,
'
he
!
that
Now
'
said.
left
that
is
none of them would put
into his awa-skin.' "
'
Carry me, carry
awa-skin,' said the
"
'
I
you on the
in
your
Sun.
'but
my
if
you can hold
on,
I'll
carry
back.'
So Jakhals lay flat on his stomach, and little Sun caught hold of his maanhaar,
and "
little
me
Put
!
haven't got an awa-skin, baasje,' said
Jakhals, "
me
rolled '
round on
his back.
Where do you want
'
to
go
?
asked Jak-
hals.
"
'
There, where
it
far
is,'
said the baby,
sleepily.
"
Jakhals trotted off with his nose to the
HOW JACKAL GOT
HIS STRIPE
83
ground and a sly look in his eye. He didn't he was care where the baby wanted to go ;
carry him off to the krantz just going where Xante and the young Jakhalses lived. to
could have seen his face
If baasjes
Alle
!
he was smiling, and when Oom Jakhals smiles, it is the wickedest sight in the wereld
!
He
was very pleased to think what he was taking home fat brown babies are world.
;
as nice as fat sheep-tails, so he went along quite jolly. "
But only at first. Soon his back began burn where the baby's arms went round
to
The
it.
heat got worse and worse, until he
couldn't hold " '
Soe
'
Soe
!
down
out any longer.
it
!
Baasje burns me,' he cried.
a
little
neck can get
cool.'
Sail
"
The
held fast
further, baasje, so that
my
Sun slipped further down and again, and Jakhals trotted on. little
"
But soon he called out again, Soe Now the middle of my back burns. Soe '
!
!
Sail
down
"The
still
little
a
little further.'
Sun went
further
down and
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
84
And
held fast again,
so
it
went
on.
Every
time Jakhals called out that he was burning, the baby slipped a little further, and a little further,
the
tail,
he had hold of Jakhals by and then he wouldn't let go. Even at last
till
when Jakhals tail
Jakhals's
quite black
called
out,
he held on, and
burnt and burnt.
!
it
was
!
"'Help! help!' he screamed Get off! Let go devil's child !
you
My
for this!
I'll
bite
' !
!
I'll
you!
Ach, you
I'll
punish
gobble you
Help! Help!' And he jumped, and bucked, and rushed about the up!
veld,
My tail is burning! till
at last the
"Then
Jakhals voertsed
at the little
up.
baby had
Sun
to bite
1
to let go.
round, and ran
him and gobble him
But when he got near, a funny thing
Yes truly, just when happened, my baasjes. he was going to bite, he stopped halfway, and shivered back as if someone had beaten At
he had growled with crossness, but now he began to whine from frightenness. him.
first
Voertsed. Evidently a word of Outa's jump round suddenly and violently.
1
to
coining,
meaning
HOW JACKAL GOT "
And why was
HIS STRIPE
my
it,
baasjes
85
Because
?
from under the baby's arms streamed brightness and
and
hotness,
out
of
the
baby's
eyes came streaks of fire, so that Jakhals winked and blinked, and tried to make him-
Every time he opened like slits, there was the
self small in the sand.
his eyes a
little,
just
baby sitting straight in front of him, staring at him so that he had to shut them again quick, quick. "
'
"
'
Come and
punish me,' said the baby. said Jakhals No, baasje, ach no '
!
'
a small,
little
voice,
why
should
I
in
punish
'
you
?
"
'
"
'
it.'
Come and
bite me,' said the baby.
No, baasje, no, Jakhals
made
could never think of
I
himself
still
a
little
smaller
in the sand. "
'
Come and
gobble
me
up,' said the
baby. a and tried to yell Jakhals gave crawl further back. "
Then
"'Such a to
make
fine little child,'
his voice sweet,
such a wicked thing
'
?
'
he
said, trying
who would ever do
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
86 "
You
'
would,' said the
little
'
Sun.
When
you had carried me safely to your krantz, you would have gobbled me up. You are toch so sometimes you
clever, Jakhals, but
your match. "
but
Now, look
at
me
was
just as
if
my
baasjes,
something made
his eyes
go open, and he lay there staring and the baby stared at him so, "
just so
-Outa
meet
well.'
Jakhals didn't want to look, it
will
at the baby,
my
baasjes,
stretched his eyes to their
utmost and held each
fascinated
child
in
turn. "
'
You'll
know me again when you '
said the baby,
you be able
see me,'
but never, never again
to look
me
in
the
face.
will
And
now you can go' "
Fierce light shot from his eyes, and he blew at Jakhals with all his might his breath ;
burning flame, and Jakhals, half dead with frightenness, gave a great howl
was
and "
like a
fled
away over
From
that
day,
black stripe right of his
tail.
the vlakte.
And
my
down
baasjes,
he has a
back
to the tip
his
he cannot bear the Sun,
HOW JACKAL GOT
HIS STRIPE
87
but hides
only at
away all day with shut eyes, and night when the Old Man with the
bright armpits has gone to sleep, does he come out to hunt and look for food, and play tricks on the other animals."
X.
THE ANIMALS' DAM. "
ACH
!
it
was dry,"
said Outa,
last
"as dry as For a long
year's springbok biltong. time the Old Man in the sky shot
strong light and sucked
From morning
the veld.
down hotness on rolled
round
and blew again.
all
to
down
the water out of
he poured the world, and when he
sleep,
and blew
to night
a hot till
wind blew-
he woke to shine
The karroo bushes
dried
up,
the
had no water, and the poor animals began to die from thirst. It was such a drought, my little masters, as you have never
rivers
seen. "
At
last
Oom Leeuw
called the animals
make a plan. The Sun had gone under, and
together to "
the
Lady
THE ANIMALS' DAM Moon was
sailing in the sky
she always
is,
world.
Oom
beautiful, as
and looking down on the hot Leeuw sat under a krantz on
the morning side of a kopje, where little cool,
and the others
watermelon
89
sat
it
round him
was a like
a
slice.
Leopard, Hyena, Babiaan, Jakhals, Hare and Tortoise were in front The smaller ones, they were the chief ones. ;
like Dassie, Mierkat,
the
sides
at
and Zebra, Springbok, Ostrich
;
and Giraffe waited news.
and Hedgehog, were in
the veld to hear the
They pretended
to be eating, but
all
the time their ears went backwards and for-
wards,
backwards to
catch
and
forwards little
so,
my
sound,
and
every were at the first sign of danger they ready
baasjes,
to
race away, kicking up the dust so that
Oom Leeuw
would not be able
to see
them.
"
But they needn't have been afraid. Oom Leeuw was too hot and tired and weak to
He just sat against the anything. krantz with his dry tongue hanging out, and the others just lay round about in the water-
catch
melon
slice
with their dry tongues hanging
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
90
and every time they looked at the sky to see if any clouds were coming up. But no out,
!
The sky was
just like a big, hot soap-pot
turned over above their heads, with the Lady Moon making a silver road across it, and the stars shining like bits
little
hot
There
Sun.
was
broken
off the big,
that
nothing
even
looked like a cloud. "
At
and
Oom Leeuw
last
rolled
off.
dryness
began "
'
it
to
about
When
pulled in his tongue
in his it
mouth
stopped
rattling,
he
talk.
Friends and brothers and nephews,' he
said
yes, just like that
Oom Leeuw
he was so miserable that he
them
all.
felt
began
;
friendly with
'Friends and brothers and nephews,
time to
it is
to get the
make
a plan.
You know how
it
with a drought when it is at its worst, the bottom of the clouds falls out, and the water is
;
away fast, fast, to the sea, where there is much water already, and the poor karroo
runs too
Even if a landagain without any. rain comes, it just sinks in, because the ground is
left
is
too loose and dry to hold
it,
so
we must
THE ANIMALS' DAM
91
a plan to keep the water, and my plan But it's no use for one or to dig a dam.
make is
two
to
work
;
What do
everyone must help.
'
you say
?
"
'
Certainly,' said Leopard.
"
'
Certainly/ said Hyena.
"
'
Certainly/ said Ant-bear.
"
'
Certainly/ said Jakhals, but he winked his eye at the Lady Moon, and then put his
nose into the
warm sand
so that no one could
see his sly smile. "
All the other animals
and then they began
said
to talk
'
Certainly/
about the dam.
A
person would never have said Each one had a their throats were dry.
Dear land
!
and each one talked without
different plan,
listening to the other.
bazaar
yes,
It
was
baasjes, long
like a
Church
ago when Outa
was young he was on a bazaar in the village, but he was glad, my baasjes, when he could creep into the veld again and get the noise out of his ears. "
At
wise
last the
little
Water Tortoise
head under
his
he with the
patchwork
shell
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
92
'
said,
Let us go now while
is
it
and
cool,
look for a place for the dam.' "
So they hunted about and found a nice place, and soon they began to make the dam. Baasjes,
but those animals worked
They
!
scratched, they dug, they poked, they bored,
they pushed and they rolled
dam
their best, so that the
when
the others,
Why
'
don't
should
nails off for
"
did
could be ready
'
at last
till
they asked, '
you do
I
'
'
?
it
yourself?
But Jakhals only laughed
why
all
Only lazy Jakhals did He just roamed round saying to Why don't you do this ? Why
don't you do that "
and they
the rain came.
not work.
'
;
at them.
'And
be so foolish as to scratch
your old
dam
'
he
?
my
said.
"
But you said Certainly," too, when Oom asked us, didn't you ? they asked. '
'
"
'
Then
Jakhals laughed more than ever. Ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha! I then a slave
of
Am
my word ?
That was
last night.
Don't
you know yet that a thing is one colour by moonlight, and quite another colour when the sun shines on
it ?
Ha
!
ha ha !
' !
THE ANIMALS' DAM "
So he went about bothering
93
the
poor
animals that were at
laughing
working o so hard, and them when they got hot and
tired.
"
What's the use of working so hard Those who do not work will also drink.' '
"
'
"
'
How
Wait a
winking "
do you know
At
?'
they asked.
see,' said sly
bit, you'll
last the
the
till
began
Jakhals,
his eye again.
dam was
finished,
very night the rain began. on,
?
dam was
to run
great big
away over
dam
Mother of
quite
all
high kopje. truth-telling
down
so
to the is
the
broad,
my
can't see the wall at
you
Yes, so
and the water
the veld,
and
water,
the other side, even
kept on and
the Sea, that
called
baasjes, that truly
full
It
and that
when you stand on a Outa has heard from
The milk-bushes and
people.
karroo-bushes grew green again, and the little veld flowers burst out of the hard ground, and
opened
their white,
and
purple eyes to look at like
and pink, and the Sun. They were blue,
variegated karosses spread out on the
94
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
veld,
and the Old any more
fierce
;
Man
sky was not so he did not burn them with in the
his hotness, but looked at "
And
kindly.
odad for the animals were toch so o
the water the "
them
dam
From
!
far
and near they came
to
to drink.
But Jakhals was before them all. Soon after the Sun went down baasjes know, the wild animals sleep in the daytime and hunt in the night
dam and drank
he went to the
as
much water as he wanted, and filled his clay pot with some to take home. Then he swam round and round to get cool, making the water muddy and dirty, and when the other animals came to drink, he slipped over the dam wall and was lost in the veld as if he had
been a large "
"
My
!
but
pin.
Oom Leeuw
'
What
Hoorr-rr-rr,'
he
was very angry '
roared,
!
hoorr-rr-rr
!
a thing ? Does the lazy one think he can share with the workers ? Who is
this for
ever heard of such a thing?
Here, Broer Babiaan, take hide yourself by the
dam
Hoorr-rr-rr!
this big kierie
and
to-night, so that
THE ANIMALS' DAM you can catch
this
95
Water-
this
Vagabond,
stealer.'
"
Early that night, there was Jakhals again.
He
peeped
this
way and
that
so,
my
was old Broer
and, yes truly, there
baasjes,
way
Babiaan lying amongst the bushes. But Jakhals was too schelm for him. He made as if
He
he didn't see him. hind legs, at the
all in
danced along on
the round,
in
all
edge of the dam, singing
his
the round,
:
'
Hing-ting-ting
My "
He
Honna-mak-a-ding
!
sweet, sweet water
!
' !
over and over, and every time he came to the end of a line, he dipped his
sang
fingers
this
into
his
clay
pot
and
sucked
them.
"'Aha! but my honey licking his lips.
old dirty water,
'
What do
when
of nice sweet water "
I
is I
he
said,
want with
their
nice.'
have a whole potful
' !
Baasjes know, baboons will do anything
honey, and when old Broer Babiaan heard Jakhals he forgot he was there to guard the
for
dam.
He
crept out from his hiding-place, a
96
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
little
nearer,
and a
little
nearer,
and
at last
he couldn't keep quiet any longer. When Jakhals came dancing along again, he called out in a great hurry,
me
Please give
a
'
Good
little
evening, Jakhals
!
of your sweet water,
too!' "
'
Arre
'
said
!
Jakhals,
and pretending
side
to
a schrik you gave me here, Broer Babiaan ?' !
"
Ach no
'
walk. "
'
"
'
"
'
It's
Only
'
startled.
What
Do
What
are you doing
Jakhals, I'm just taking a
little
such a fine night.' kierie ?'
to dig out eintjes.'
you
really
want some of
sweet
my
'
?
Yes, please, Jakhals,' said Broer Babiaan,
licking his lips. " And what will '
"
one
to '
But why have you got that big
water "
!
be
jumping
'
I'll
let
you
fill
you give
me
'
for
it ?
your pot with water from
the dam.' "
'
Ach
!
I
don't
want any of that
know how fond you
dam
water, but
this
sweet water, Broer, so
I
dirty old
I'll
let
are of
you drink
THE ANIMALS' DAM some.
Here,
I'll
97
hold your kierie while you
drink.' "
Boer Babiaan was
such a hurry to get to the honey that he just threw the kierie to Jakhals, but just as he was going to put his in
fingers into the pot, Jakhals pulled it away. " I'll No, wait a bit, Broer,' he said. '
'
show you a nicer " '
"
'
don't
of
if
you
better way. lie
Ach no Yes, lie
It will taste
much
down.' '
!
really,
Jakhals
really,' said
down
'
Jakhals.
at once,
my sweet water.' He spoke quite
?
And
if
you
you won't get a drop
"
crossly,
and Babiaan was
so tame by this time that he was ready to believe anything, so he lay down, and Jakhals
stood over him with his knapsack riem. "
'
riem, "
'
Now,
Brother,
and then
I'll
first
I'll
tie
you with
my
feed you with the honey.'
Yes, yes,' said Broer Babiaan quickly.
"His mouth was watering
for the
honey and he ;
he couldn't think of anything else, had long ago forgotten all about looking after It goes so, my baasjes, when a the dam.
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
98
person thinks only of what he wants and not of what he must. So he let Jakhals tie his
hands and
and even
feet,
his
tail,
and then
he opened his mouth wide. " But Jakhals only danced round and round,
and licking
sticking his fingers into the pot
them, and singing
:
'
Hing-ting-ting
My " '
'
You
Where's mine said
'
from
'
?
!
' !
called Broer Babiaan.
you would feed me.
sweet water "
Honna-mak-a-ding
!
sweet, sweet water
Where's
my
'
?
the sweet water you'll get
Here's
all
me,'
said
Jakhals,
and
he
kraaks
gave poor Broer Babiaan a hard
hit
with
the kierie. "
'
Borgom
!
Borgom
!
Help
Broer Babiaan, and tried to
!'
screamed
away. But there was no one to help him, so he could only scream and roll over, and each time he rolled over, Jakhals hit "
roll
him again
kraaks
!
he squeezed the clay pot and baasjes can believe me it had never had any honey in it at all over Broer Babiaan's
At
last
o
h
THE ANIMALS' DAM
99
much
head, while he ran off and drank as
water as he wanted, and swam, and stirred
Then he took
up the mud.
Broer Babiaan's head,
and danced
off,
the clay pot off
filled
singing
it
with water,
:
'
Hing-ting-ting
My "
'
hope from
Honna-mak-a-ding
!
sweet, sweet water
!
Good-bye, Brother/ he called you'll
Oom
!
'
'
out.
I
enjoy the sweet water you'll get Leeuw when he sees how well
you have looked after the dam.' " Poor Old Broer Babiaan was, ach
!
so
was even more unhappy Leeuw had punished him and set
miserable, but he after
Oom
him on a large stone
mock in
at.
Baasjes,
was sad
it
a long string, big ones and
each one stopped
and stuck out and stuck out to
for the other
in
!
animals to
They came
little
ones,
front of the big stone
his tongue, then turned his tail
Broer Babiaan,
and
till
round
yes, so rude they
were
the poor old animal
got ashameder and ashameder, and sat all in a heap, hanging down his head and trying not to see how they were mocking at him.
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
ioo "
When
all
animals had
passed on untied Broer
the
and drunk water, Oom Leeuw Babiaan and let him go, and off he went the krantzes as fast as he could, with his
between "
And
It is
to
tail
his legs.
that
is
all
for to-night,
too long to finish now.
Lys with the
my
baasjes.
See, here
baasjes' supper,
comes
and Outa can
smell that his askoekies are burning by the hut."
Evading the children's detaining hands, Outa sidled away, turning in the passage doorway
to
paw
the
air
with his crooked
fingers in token of a final farewell.
XI.
SAVED BY HIS "
THE
TAIL.
end, Outa, please," said
end of The Animals Dam.
"
little
You
Jan,
said
it
the
was
too long to finish last night." "
my
Aja,
and
that's
it's full
baasje,
why
is
it
of jakkals draaie,
so long, but
it's
near the
end now. "
The
night was old by the time the animals
had finished with old Broer Babiaan, and the stars were going out. Only the Big Star, that lasts the longest,
by the began
Stars'
to
travelling quickly
call
the
Dawn.
to get light already at the place
Old
the shining that
meant
fade
away
"
Road
was
it
Man
It
where
gets up every day, and
was time
for
the animals to
to their sleeping-places.
Oom Leeuw
looked
round
on
them.
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
102 '
Who
will
look after the
will,'
said a
dam
'
?
to-night
he
asked. "
'
I
'
little
voice, quickly.
this
that speaks from
Peep
!
'
peep
!
And who
'
'
ground
is
asked
?
Com.
'
Let
us
find
the this
brave one.' "
They looked about
in the sand,
and
there,
under a milk-bush near the dam, sat the Water
He
Tortoise.
big as the
lid
was nice and
big, baasjes, as
of the soap-pot, and his skinny
He
legs were very strong.
stretched out his
skinny neck and twinkled his little black eyes. "Vll look after the dam, Oom, and 7'11 catch the Water-Spoiler for you.'
"'Ha!
How
ha! ha!
Oom Leeuw. If Oom will just
will
you do that?'
asked "
'
let
someone rub
back with the sticky black floor of the hives, will
"
then
Oom
stuff
my
from the
will see
what
man,' said
Oom
happen.' '
This
is
a wise
little
Leeuw, and he ordered Old Brown Sister
Hyena
she with the limp in the
left
hind
SAVED BY HIS TAIL
the
stuff.
sticky "
That
went
Water Tortoise with
rub the
to
leg
103
but no
dam
when Jakhals
baasjes,
he peeped about,
to drink,
was no one
there
!
my
night,
to the
to
guard the dam
;
only a large black stone lay near the edge of the water. "
'
Arre
!
'
this is lucky,' said Jakhals.
a nice large stone
I'll
!
stand on
it
Such
while
I
drink.' "
He
know
didn't
had a
that the stone
strong skinny neck, and, on the end of the neck, a head with little bright eyes that could see everything that was going on. So he
down he came gave a jump, and woops on to the stone with his two front feet, and !
there they stuck fast to the sticky black
He
and he could not move them. he
tried,
"
'
but
Toever
me go
it ' !
was no
stuff,
tried,
and
use.
he screamed,
'
toever
!
Let
' !
'"Peep! peep!'
said a
little
voice, 'don't
be frightened.'
"'Who
says
I'm
frightened,
you
old
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
io 4
'
toever
hind
"
Jakhals. I
can
still
Though
kick with
feet.'
Kick, kick, kick, and stick
'
fast,'
said the
voice.
little
So Jakhals kicked and
hind feet stuck "
'
asked
?
front feet are fast,
my my
"
stone
kicked,
and
his
fast.
like
There was a funny sound under the water, It was water bubbling through a reed.
the
Water Tortoise
"
'
Nier-r-r
very cross you with it.'
'
;
"
Beat, little
"
still
got a
beat,
beat,
and
with
tail,
and
stick
fast,'
beat
said
voice. beat,
and
his
tail
fast.
he said again, very angry got a mouth, and I'll bite you
Nier-r-r still
!
;
it.' '
little
Bite bite, bite,
and
stick fast,' said the
voice.
"Jakhals opened his mouth, and bit,
I'll
'
'
I've
"
I've
said Jakhals, getting
!
So Jakhals beat and
stuck
*
'
nier-r-r
!
'
the "
laughing.
and
his
mouth stuck
fast.
bit
and
There he
SAVED BY HIS TAIL
105
a bundle, sticking altogether fast to the black stone, and the more he tried to all
was,
in
get free, the more he stuck "
fast.
'
'
Peep, peep
Water
said the
!
Tortoise,
head and laughing. Then he the top of the dam-wall where
his
poking up marched to
everyone could see the strange sight, and there he sat, all quiet and good, till the other animals came. "
'
Arre
Jakhals
They be
a
held
Sister's
to
sticking
killed,
"
they were glad
!
Council and ordered
and
Broer
husband
was
They loosened
sticky
stuff,
the
when they saw Water Tortoise. old
Hyena
be the
to
Jakhal's
him
to
Brown
killer.
mouth from the
so that he could talk for the last
He was
His very sorry for himself. voice was thick with sorriness, and he could
time.
hardly get the words out.
"'Thank
you,
Oom,' he
I'm a wicked creature. to die than to live
It's
said.
'I
know
better for
me
and trouble everyone so
much.' "
Oom Leeuw
and the other animals were
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
io6
wondering what kind of death the Waterstealer should die. "
Chop my head
'
said Jakhals
off,'
' ;
throw
me in the fountain, but please, ach! please don't shave my tail and hit me on the big stone.' "
Oom Leeuw
and the others were
still
putting their heads together. "
Beat
'
me
with kieries, drown
me
in the
dam,' said Jakhals, 'but don't, ach! please don't smear my tail with fat and hit me on the big stone.' "
Oom Leeuw
and the others made as
they were taking no notice of him. " Chop me in little pieces, beat '
thorn
ach
me
branches,'
please don't take
!
on the big
"At "
said
'
last
tail,'
fat,
and
me
Jakhals,
but please,
me by
tail
Oom Leeuw
the
and
hit
it
turned round.
shall
be done.
he said to the others, 'smear hit his
with
stone.'
Just as you say,
his
'
if
head on the big stone.
Shave it
with
Let
it
be done.' " still
'
So
was done, and Jakhals stood very and sad while his tail was being shaved it
SAVED BY HIS TAIL
107
But when Hyena swung him one, two, three, pht away he slipped
and smeared. round
!
and ran over the veld as
fast as
he could.
All
the others ran after him, but they were only
running to catch and he was running to live, so he went like the wind, and soon they were left far
"
behind.
He
never stopped till he came to a mountain where a krantz hung over and made a
The first to him was Oom Leeuw, who had run
kind of cave, and
come
after
in
he crept.
crawling
and when Oom's head touched the
in,
top of the cave, he ran out, calling "
'
Oom
Jakhals watched
faster than the others.
Oom, Oom,
don't hold
it
the krantz
up, you'll
is
:
falling.
If
Oom
run and get a pole to prop it up, but must please wait till I come back.' I'll
"He
left
Oom
the krantz to
you
be crushed to death.
plastering his head against
hold
it
up,
while
shot away, and never stopped
pht
!
he
he got safe home, where he rolled bolmakissie over and over, laughing to think all
the animals again."
till
how he had
cheated
XII.
THE FLYING "
ONCE
a
upon "
thoughtfully, "
O-o-o-oh
and
their
Yes,
!
remarked
Oom Leeuw
used to
said the children
eyes widened with
picture called "
"
time,"
LION.
my
Brother Bat,
fly."
together,
terror at the
up by Outa's words. baasjes, and then nothing could
live before him.
with feathers
all
Outa,
:
all
His wings were not covered they were like the wings of skin and ribs
;
but they were
very big, and very thick, and very strong, and when he wasn't flying they were folded flat
he
against his sides. let
the
points
When
down
to
he was angry the
ground
Oubaas Turkey when he gobblegobble-gobbles and struts before his wives tr-r-r-r
tr-r-r-r,
like
and when he wanted
to rise
from the
THE FLYING LION
109
ground he spread them out and flapped them up and down slowly at first so, my baasjes
;
then faster and faster
made
so,
so
so,
till
a big wind with them and sailed
he
away
into the air."
Outa, flapping his crooked arms and puffing out his disproportionate chest, seemed about to follow suit, but suddenly subsided again
on
to his stool. "
Ach, but
it
was a
terrible sight
when he was high above look down for something
Then,
!
the earth, he would to
If
kill.
he saw a
along till he was just over them, and pick out a nice fat one then he would stretch out his iron claws,
herd of springbokke he would
fly
;
down he would wings and woops on the poor bokkie before it had time to
fold his fall
!
jump away. Yes, that was the way Leeuw hunted in the olden times.
Oom
" of,
There was only one thing he was afraid and that was that the bones of the animals
he caught and ate would be broken to pieces. No one knew why, and everyone was too frightened of
Oom Leeuw to try
and
find out.
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
no He
used to keep them all at his home in the krantzes, and he had crows to look after them,
two
at a time
not like the ugly black crows
that build in the willow-trees near the
but White Crows, the kind that
once
in
many
years.
As soon
dam,
come only as a white
crow baby was found it was taken to Oom Leeuw that was his order then he kept it ;
krantzes of the mountains and
in the
grow big
let
it
and when the old White Crows
;
died the next eldest became watchmen, and so there were always White
when
to
watch
Oom Leeuw
went hunting. But one day while he was away Brother
the bones "
Crows
Big Bullfrog came along, hop-hop-hoppityhop, hop-hop-hoppity-hop, and said
do you
Crows "
here
the
White Crows
'
?
And
to look after the "
Why
day, you Whitehead
sit
all
' :
bones
for
said
' :
Oom
We sit here
Leeuw.'
Ach, but you must be tired of sitting !' said Brother Big Bullfrog, You fly away a '
'
little
and
and look
stretch your wings. after the bones.'
I
will sit
here
THE FLYING LION
in
"
The White Crows looked this way and that way, up and down and all round, but no!
Oom
they couldn't see '
thought a fly.' "
:
Now
So they
is
Leeuw, and
they
our chance to get away for
said
'
'
Cr-r-raw, cr-r-raw
and
!
stretched out their wings and flew away. " Brother Big Bullfrog called out after
them
'
Don't hurry back.
like.
you "
' :
I
will
Stay as long as
take care of the bones.'
But as soon as they were gone he said
Now
I
shall find out
:
why Oom Leeuw keeps
the bones from being broken.
Now
I
shall
why men and
And
animals can live no longer.' he went from one end to the other of
Oom
Leeuw's house at the bottom of the
see
krantz, breaking "
Ach,
all
the bones he could find.
but he worked quickly
crack, crack, crack
broke bones.
!
!
Crack
!
Wherever he went he
Then when he had
finished he
hopped away, hop-hop-hoppity-hop, hop-hophoppity-hop, as fast as he could.
When
he
had nearly reached his dam in the veld, the White Crows overtook him. They had been
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
ii2
they were frightened the broken bones.
to the krantz and, foei
when they saw "
'
all
Craw, craw
Bullfrog,
why
!
' !
'
you so wicked
are
be so angry. He nice white heads craw, craw
Leeuw
a head,
will
who can
Brother Big
they said,
Oom
?
will bite off
our
and without
!
'
live
?
"
But Brother Big Bullfrog pretended he didn't hear. He just hopped on as fast as he could, and the White Crows went after him. "
'
It's
no good hopping
Bullfrog,' they said.
'
away,
Oom Leeuw
Brother will
find
you wherever you are, and with one blow of his iron claws he will kill you.' "
But old Brother Big Bullfrog didn't take any notice. He just hopped on, and when he came to his dam he sat back at the edge of the water and blinked the beautiful eyes in his
ugly old head, and said
Leeuw comes
tell
broke the bones.
dam, and here.'
if
him Tell
I
' :
am him
he wants to see
me
When Oom
the I
man who
live
in
this
he must come
THE FLYING LION
113
"
The White Crows were very cross. They flew down quickly to peck Brother Big Bullbut they only dug their beaks into the mud, because Brother Big Bullfrog
frog,
soft
wasn't sitting there any longer.
Kabloops
!
he had dived into the dam, and the White
Crows could only see the place
rings round the
where he had made a hole
in
the
water. "
Oom Leeuw
was
far
in the veld,
away
At last he waiting for food, waiting for food. saw a herd of zebras the little striped horses very fond of and he tried to fly up so that he could fall on one of them, but he that he
is
couldn't.
He
He
tried again, but no,
spread out his wings and flapped them,
but they
were
quite
weak,
umbrella when the ribs are "
Then Oom Leeuw knew
like
there must be
at his house,
toch too angry.
He
the
ground
baasjes'
broken.
something wrong into
he couldn't.
and he was
struck his iron claws
and roared and roared.
Softly he began, like thunder far
away
rolling
through the kloofs, then louder and louder, H
OUT A KAREL'S STORIES
n4 till
hoor-rr-rr-rr,
the earth
hoor-rr-rr-rr
beneath him seemed to shake. noise.
terrible "
was a
It
But
couldn't
all fly,
he
his roaring did not help him,
and
He
walk home.
he had
at last
the
up and poor White
fright,
but they soon
found
Crows nearly dead with
to get
found out that he could no longer were not afraid of him.
fly,
so they
"'Hoor-rr-rr-rr, hoor-rr-rr-rr!' he roared. '
What have you done
weak "
to
so
?
And
they said
' :
And Oom Leeuw
here to watch them. they are broken,
going to
and
Oom
While
someone came and broke "
make my wings
'
It
the bones.'
all
said
' :
is
was away
You were your
fault
to punish
you I your stupid white heads
bite
put that
am off.
'
Hoor-rr-rr-rr
!
"He
sprang towards them, but now that they knew he couldn't fly they were not afraid of him.
round
They
flew
away and
sailed
over his head, just too high 'Ha! for him to reach, and they called out in the air
:
THE FLYING LION ha
ha
!
Oom
!
cannot catch us
115
The bones
!
are broken, and his wings are useless.
Now
We
will fly
men and
animals can live again.
away and "
tell
them the good news.'
Oom Leeuw
sprang into the air, first to one side and then to the other, striking at them, but he couldn't reach them, and when he found
all
his efforts
were
in vain,
he rolled
on the ground and roared louder than ever. " The White Crows flew round him in rings,
and
no longer
called out fly
He
!
' :
Ha
!
only
ha
ha
!
!
he can
and roars
rolls
!
"
If The man who broke the bones said Oom Leeuw wants me he can come and look for me at the dam." Craw, craw,' and :
away they " Then
flew.
Oom Leeuw
'
Wait, I'll thought get hold of the one who broke the bones. I'll So he went to the dam, and get him.' there
was old
:
Brother Bullfrog sitting
the sun at the water's edge.
in
Oom Leeuw
crept up slowly, quietly, like a skelm, behind
Brother Bullfrog. "
'
Ha now !
I've got him,'
he thought, and
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
n6
made a spring, but Brother Bullfrog said, Ho!' and dived in kabloops and came '
!
up
at the other side of the
dam, and
sat there
blinking in the sun. "
Oom Leeuw
could,
and was just going
kabloops
the
at
when
to spring,
Brother Bullfrog dived
!
came up
and
ran round as hard as he
other
in
again
of
side
the
dam. "
And
when
so
went
it
on.
Each
time, just
Oom Leeuw
had nearly caught him, Brother Bullfrog dived in kabloops and called out 'Ho!' from the other side of the !
dam. "
Then
at last
Oom Leeuw
saw
it
was no
use trying to catch Brother Bullfrog, so he
went home bones.
to see
if
he could mend the broken
But he could
and from
that
day he could no longer fly, only walk upon his iron claws. Also, from that day he learned to creep quietly like a skelm after his game,
and though he them, he
is
he could
fly.
still
not,
catches them and eats
not as dangerous as he was
when
THE FLYING LION "And speak.
the
117
White Crows can no longer
They can
'
only say,
Craw, craw.'
"
But old Brother Big Bullfrog still goes hop-hop-hoppity-hop round about the dam,
and whenever he sees '
says loops
!
Ho as
' !
Oom Leeuw
he just and dives into the water kab-
fast
as
he can,
laughing when he hears with anger."
and
sits
Oom Leeuw
there roar
XIII.
WHY THE HERON HAS THE
A CROOKED NECK.
flames leapt gaily upward in the wide
throwing strange shadows on the painted walls and gleaming on the polished wood of floor and beam and cupboard. Little fireplace,
Jan basked contentedly
now
dozing curled
absently
in the
warmth, almost the
stroking
up beside him, now running
terrier
his fingers
through the softer fur of the rug on which It was made of silver-jackal skins he lay. a dozen of them, to judge from the six bushy tails
spread out on either side
;
and as Outa
Karel's gaze rested on them, he remarked
reminiscently"
No
Arre
!
but
Oom
Jakhals was a slim kerel
!
one ever got the better of him without
paying
for it."
HERON HAS CROOKED NECK In an instant
little
Jan was
upright, every
symptom
from his face
the
;
119 bolt
sitting
of sleep
banished
book from which Willem
gain some idea of the physical features of Russia was while flung to the far end of the rustbank
had been laboriously trying
to
;
Pietie,
for
suspending
a brief
moment
his
the whittling of a catapult stick, slid along floor to get within better sight and sound of the story-teller. "
Yes,
my
little
Oom Leeuw
masters, sometimes
he cheated, sometimes
Oubaas Babiaan or
was
it
was
Wolf, and once
it
Dove, and that is what think of how he was cheated him-
was the poor
made me
Oom
it
little
self."
"
Did the
little
Dove
Pietie eagerly. " No, baasje, the
Dove
cheat him ?" asked
is
too frightened
not stupid, baasje, but like people are when they are too gentle and kind and believe
She was everything other people tell them. sitting on her nest one day singing to her '
little
children,
Coo-oo, coo-oo coo-oo,'
when
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
120
Oom
Jakhals prowled along under the tree and heard her. "
'
wereld
Alia
Good morning,
such
and
Tante.
for
I
me
out,
hear you have Please
children.
little
pretty
them down "
have a nice
I'll
he thought, and he called
breakfast/ '
Now
!
bring
to see.'
But the Tante was frightened of Jakhals, '
I'm sorry,
said,
to-day, "
and
I
Oom, they
must keep them
are not well
at home.'
Then
Jakhals lost his temper, and called Nonsense, I'm hungry and want some-
'
out,
down one
thing to eat, so throw
of your
little
children at once.' "
Baasjes know, sometimes crossness drives away frightenness and Tante was so cross ;
Oom
with
her
Jakhals for wanting to eat one of children that she called out, No, '
little
you bad Jakhals, I shall do nothing of Go away and look for other food.' the sort.
no,
" all,'
'
If
you
said
once.'
don't,
I'll '
Jakhals.
And
up and eat them Throw one down at fly
he stamped about and made
such a horrible noise that the poor Tante
HERON HAS CROOKED NECK
121
thought he was really flying up. She looked at her babies there wasn't one she wanted :
but
to give,
have them
and fell
eaten
all
;
so she shut her eyes
and Jakhals caught
out,
Ach
one than
to lose
about the nest
fluttered
and carried "
was better
it
till
one of them
mouth
in his
it
off to his hole to eat.
it
but the poor Tante was sad
!
She
!
spread her wings over her other children and never slept all night, but looked about this
way and every
that
little
trying to
way with her
noise she heard
up
fly
to
soft eyes, thinking
was
Oom Jakhals
her nest to gobble up
all
her babies. "
The
next morning there was '
hals again.
juicy
haste,
and eat you "
'
Jak-
Tante, your child was a nice,
mouthful.
And make
Oom
Throw me down do you hear
?
or
another. I'll
fly
up
all.'
Coo-oo,
coo-oo,
coo-oo,'
said
Tante,
'
won't give you one.' But it was no use, and in the end she did what
crying,
no,
I
she had done before fluttered
just shut her eyes
round and round
till
a baby
fell
and out
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
122
She thought there was no help and, like some people are, she thought
of the nest. for
it,
what the eye feel
didn't see the heart wouldn't
but her heart was very sore, and she
;
more sadly than
cried
she said,
'
and
ever,
Oo-oo, oo-oo, oo-oo
sad and sorrowful to listen to
'
It
!
'
time
this
was very
Oo-oo, oo-oo,
'
oo-oo "
!
Here came
old
Oom
Reijer.
He
is
a
kind old bird, though he holds his neck so crooked and looks like there was nothing to smile at in the whole wide world. "
Ach why do you cry so sadly, Tante nearly gives me a stitch in my side.' '
!
It
"'Oo-oo!
I'm
very
Jakhals has eaten two of
and to-morrow he soon "
'
"
'
I
shall
will
have none
miserable.
my
come
little
?
Oom
children,
and
for another,
left.' '
But why did you let him eat them ? Because he said if I didn't give him one '
up and eat them all. Oo-oo-oo "Then Oom Reijer was very angry. He flapped his wings, and stretched out his long
he would
neck
!
fly
so,
my
baasjes, just so
"
(the children
HERON HAS CROOKED NECK
123
hugged themselves in silent delight at Outa's " and he opened and shut his fine acting) long beak to show how he would like to peck out Oom Jakhals's wicked eyes if he could only catch him. " tell
That vervlakste Jakhals
'
such
lies
!
But, Tante,
Don't you know Now listen to me.
Oom
' !
he
you are
Jakhals
When
To
'
said.
stupid.
can't
fly ?
he comes again,
him you know he can't fly, and that you won't give him any more of your children.' " The next day there came Oom Jakhals
tell
again with his old story, but Tante just laughed at him. "
'
Ach, no! you story-telling Bushytail won't give you any more of children, and you needn't say you'll '
she said, little
I
up and eat them, because
I
know you
'
"'Nier-r-r, '
growling, "
'
Oom '
Tante.
mother "
My
nier-r-r
said
!
how do you know
Oom that
' !
my fly
can't.'
Jakhals, '
? '
Reijer told
And you
me, so there
can
just
go
!
to
said
your
' !
!
but Tante was getting brave
now
OUT A KAREL'S STORIES
i2 4
knew she and her little children were That was the worst insult you can ever
that she safe.
give a grown-up jakhals, and growled more than ever. "
Oom
Jakhals
Never mind,' he said at last, Tante is I won't bother with her only a vrouwmens '
'
;
any more. But wait till I catch Oom Reijer. He'll be sorry he poked his long nose into my business, the old meddler,' and he trotted off to look for him.
"
He
hunted and hunted, and at
last
he
found him standing on one leg at the side of the river, with his long neck drawn in and his
head resting on " '
'
Good
How "
'
is
I'm
day,
Oom all
his shoulders.
Oom
Reijer,'
he said
politely.
'
to-day
?
answered
Oom
Reijer without an inch. shortly, moving " Jakhals spoke in a little small voice
ach this
!
right,'
toch so humble.
way a
little
:
c
Oom,
please
come
I'm so stupid, but you are
so wise and clever, and
want
to ask
your
Reijer began to listen.
It is
maar
I
advice about something.'
"Oom
HERON HAS CROOKED NECK
125
when people hear about themselves. He put down his other leg, stretched out his so
neck, and asked over his shoulder, did you say, eh
"'Come over there
'
?
toch this is
What
'
a
way
me
too soft for
little;
the
mud
to stand on.
I
want your valuable advice about the wind. The other people all say I must ask you, because no one "
is
as wise as you.'
Truly Jakhals was a slim kerel
knew how
to stroke
Oom
Reijer's
He
!
feathers
the right way. " Oom Reijer
came slowly over the mud a person mustn't show he is too pleased he :
even stopped to swallow a little frog on the way, and then he said, carelesslike, Yes, I '
you all about the wind and weather. Ask what you like, Jakhals.' His long neck can
tell
twisted about with pride. "
Oom, when
the wind
from the west, how must one hold one's head ? is
'
'"Is that all?' said so.'
east.
And
he
turned
Oom his
'Just
Reijer.
head
to
the
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
126 " is
'
Thank
you,
from the east "
'
Oom.
And when
Reijer
bent his neck
?
Oom
So.'
the wind
'
the
other way. "
'
Thank
you,
Oom/
and humble.
voice, so grateful
there
how "
So
small
little '
But when
a storm and the rain beats down,
is
'
then '
said the
? '
!
Oom
said
neck down
till
and he bent
Reijer,
head nearly touched
his
his his
toes.
"
My
little
as quickly as a
masters, just
whip-snake shoots into his hole, so Jakhals shot out his arm and caught Oom Reijer on the bend of his neck the poor old
bird
crack
was
and
!
in
a minute
rolling in the
weak
with his neck nearly broken, and so that he couldn't even
lift
his
beak
to
mud
peck
at
the false wicked eyes that were staring at him. "
O
!
how
laughed screamed
waved his
his
till
glad was cruel
he
couldn't
Jakhals any more.
!
He He He
and danced with pleasure. bushy tail, and the silver mane on
back bristled as he jumped about.
HERON HAS CROOKED NECK "
Oom
Ha! ha! ha!
'
a bad turn, but
wise as
Oom
find out
how
ha
!
Reijer, eh to
me
thought to do
teach people not to inter-
I'll
Ha
me.
fere with
127
mend
!
ha
No
Then he
?
his
!
one
is
will
broken neck.
as
soon
Ha!
ha! ha!' "
Jakhals gave one
poor
Oom
spring right over
and danced
off to his
den
Xante Jakhals and the Jakhalsjes how he had cheated Oom
in the little
kopjes to
Reijer. "
And
neck
and
Reijer,
last
is
tell
from that day, baasjes, Oom Reijer's crooked he can't hold it straight :
;
it's
through trying to interfere with That is why I said Jakhals is a
all
Jakhals. slim kerel.
Whether he walks on
or on
the best
two,
is
maar
four legs
to leave
him
alone because he can always make a plan, and no one ever gets the better of him
without paying for
it
in the end."
XIV.
THE LITTLE RED TORTOISE. "
No
said fire.
Jakhals story to-night, please, Outa," little
"
Jan, as they gathered round the
We
all
think
Jakhals was a cruel
horrid creature, eating the poor
little
Doves
and cracking the good Heron's neck." " " he was always Yes," chimed in Pietie, playing wicked tricks, so no more Jakhals for
What
us.
will
you
"
"
tell
Something really and not unkind."
Outa?"
us to-night,
nice,"
suggested Willem,
Outa's beady black eyes twinkled from one to another of his little masters, while an affectionate smile spread over his yellow face,
accentuatingo the wrinkles which criss-crossed it
in
"
every direction.
Ach
!
the
soft
young
hearts
!
Outa's
THE LITTLE RED TORTOISE heart
was
shook
his
that "
like
head
if
it
7
person
in this old
-he
of no use to a
is
He
hard world."
on the
shapeless hat
but
too,
the heart doesn't get a
taai like a biltong-, o
little
his
once,
129
"
floor,
deposited
tapped his
red kopdoek with a clawlike forefinger, and
waited for an inspiration.
It
came from an
unexpected quarter, for suddenly there was a commotion at the end of his old coat, the of which
tails
hung down nearly his
diving into
and,
pocket,
to the floor,
the
old
man
triumphantly produced a squirming tortoise. "
See what Outa caught
near the Klip little
put
Kop 1
berg schilpad. it
in
his
this
Now
for the baasjes
afternoon
a nice
Baas Willem can
kraal with the others
and
let
young, but it will grow --yes, so big." A cart-wheel might have been comfortably contained in the circle described by Outa's arms. it
lay
It
eggs.
It
is
still
was a knobbly, darkly-marked
quite unlike those the
found
in
little
tortoise,
boys generally
the veld near the house, and they Mountain I
tortoise.
1
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
30
took possession of it with delight and sugAfter discussion, gestions as to a name.
honours were
equally in
Retief" and " Mrs.
favour of " Piet
Van Riebeeck,"and
it
was
decided that the casting vote should be left to Cousin Minnie, the children's governess.
For a long time they had kept tortoises of all sorts and sizes in their schilpad-kraal, and so tame and intelligent had
creatures called,
grown and big
about at
will,
that they would
old
"
of these
come when
Woltemade
"
roamed
often disappearing for a time,
and returning days
some
to his
companions
after a few
in the veld.
Outa turned the new
acquisition
on
its
back on the jackalskin rug, where it lay wriggling and going through the strangest contortions.
"
Ach
!
the wise
little
man.
Is
mother sprinkled it with buchu, 1 He touched the there, just under its arm ?" skinny under-side of one of its forelegs. there
it
1
An
its
aromatic veld herb, from which a decoction is made. arm is a Hottentot custom in
Sprinkling buchu under the token of approval.
THE LITTLE RED TORTOISE "
Here,
boxie
Baas Willem, put to-morrow.
till
been a red
A
And have
a red one
is
a thousand
news
!
is
echoed Pietie and
!
hurried
about
all
little
back from the
it.
the baasjes then never heard
of a red tortoise
the
"
red tortoise
passage to hear "
Ach if only it had how glad Outa would
!
while Willem
Jan,
the soap-
in
"
have been "
tortoise,
it
131
Yes, certainly, sometimes
?
only once in
born, but not often
years
;
and when
this
sent round, because
it
happens is
such a
wonderful thing and the whole nation of those frogs with bony shields and Schilpads ;
hard the
glad because they know red one has come to help them
beaks little
are
against their enemies. "
Once a
long time ago a mother Schilpad laid an egg in a shallow hole in the long,
warm
sand, just where the sun could
the day, and she scraped a so that no one could see
was
afraid
of thieves.
little
it.
It
round, and so large that she
it
sand over
See
all it,
baasjes, she
was white and felt
very proud
1
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
32
of
it,
and she often went
One
getting on.
place she heard a
to see
So she
voice
little
Her
'
called out,
your mam-ma.'
it
was
day, as she got near the
Mam-ma, mam-ma, come and "
how
My
!
'
Peep
:
!
Peep
!
find me.'
Kindje, kindje, here's but she walked fast !
short legs just went so
"
-Outa's arms
worked vigorously "and when she got to the karroo-bush where she had put the egg the shell was broken and a little Red Tortoise was
sitting alongside of
"His
was
it
!
and you could see everything inside of him, and how the blood went this way and that way but never mind, shell
soft,
:
it
is
fine
maar so with
little
tortoises.
He
was
and healthy, and everything about him
was quite was proud
Alle wereld
red. !
She went and
and they came from
Red
little
toises,
Tortoise.
and vlakte
and even water
!
told
old all
sides
all
Mam-ma
her friends, to
There were
see
the
beroo tor-
and zand-kruipers, young and old, and
tortoises,
tortoises,
round and praised him and gave him good advice and nice things to eat. they
all
sat
THE LITTLE RED TORTOISE "
He
and ate
listened to everything
133
all
the
and grew bigger and redder and harder, but he didn't talk much, and the Old Ones nodded to each other and nice
things,
'
said,
'
Ach, but he
Young Ones
is
sensible
But the
!
Ach, but he is stuckand they went away and crawled in the up But it was red clay to make themselves red. '
said,
'
!
no good. "
At
home
In a
last
little
while
the visitor
all
But the
again.
rubbed
it all
off.
went
Schilpads
Red Tortoise
little
Mam-ma, and went on grow-
stayed with his
ing bigger and redder and harder, and his
Mam-ma was toch so proud of him " When he walked in the veld and young tortoises said to him, show you the way to do things so,
so
and you must do if
And
you
like,
but
I'll
so,'
he
'
;
the other
Come, we'll you must do
You can do my own way
said,
do things
!
'
!'
Wait, Stuck-up Red Thing Giraffe will But Oubaas get you they left they said
'
!
'
!
him alone, and although they were red, they did not crawl
more: they knew
it
all
wished they
in the clay
was no good.
It
any was
i
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
34
only from outside, so the
little
it
soon rubbed
off,
Red One's redness was from
but
inside;
and baasjes know, for a thing to be any good it must be on the inside." He glanced inthe wall-cupboard where
voluntarily at
soopje was safely locked up not be any good, in his
his
would certainly opinion, till it was on :
it
the inside of him. "
But when the Old Tortoises gave him advice, the little Red Tortoise listened and
He
thanked them.
He knew when
was a wise
little
man.
speak and when to hold
to
his tongue.
"At toise
that time,
nation
Oubaas
my
baasjes, the
was having a hard time with that old horse with the longo
Giraffe
neck and the unequal legs, who and black like a burnt thornbush on
sitting is
whole Tor-
it.
He
is x
all
with crows
gives blue ashes
when he
he called the Blue One.
burnt, therefore
is
"He
to eating tortoises.
didn't
had taken
know what
a plan, but no 1
!
white
to do.
They
tried to
They make
they could find no remedy.
The Mimosa, which
is
white
when burnt by
the sun.
THE LITTLE RED TORTOISE Whenever Oubaas
picked
it
pulled
its
and
could
saw a nice young
easily
swallow,
he
up in his mouth, and from fright it head and all its feet into its shell,
goops
down
he
that
tortoise
Giraffe
135
one swallow and
!
it
had sailed
the Blue One's long throat, just like
baasjes
down
sail
the plank at the side of the
skeer-kraal. "
The
Red
little
Tortoise listened to the
plans that were made, and at last he thought of a Lplan. He was not sure how it would go, o
but he was a brave '
by himself,
more
little
If
it
and he thought goes wrong, there will be no little
Red Tortoise
one,
:
but
if it
then the whole Tortoise nation
goes right, be able
will
to live again.'
"So what crawled out
did he do, far
in
baasjes?
He
the veld and sat in the
path where the Old Blue
Soon he heard
my One
goof, goof, goof,
liked to walk.
coming nearer
Then the noise stopped. The Red One peeped from under his shell.
and nearer. little
Yes, there was the great Blue One, standing over him and looking very fierce.
1
OUT A KAREL'S STORIES
36 "
Do
you know,
moment " The for this
I
little
Red
Tortoise, in one
could trample you to death
little
Red One was very
was not
'
?
frightened,
he said nothing. Red Tortoise, in one
his plan, but
"'Do you know, little moment I could swallow you ? " Ach! how glad was the little Red '
But he only said noble Blue One,
in I
a small
belong
!
'
little
voice,
Yes,
to the nation
whom
the custom to swallow.
it is
Tortoise
Please swallow
me!' "
a
Oubaas
little
Giraffe picked
gulp,
and the
!
Tortoise
But
here a strange thing happened.
The
Red One would go no
little
Red
little
his long throat.
slipped half-way oje
down
him up and gave
further.
Instead
of drawing in his head and legs and slipping
down
like a stone, like all the other tortoises
had done, he wanted
to see
where he was
going, so he stuck out his head, and fastened his
sharp
gullet,
little
nails
into
and there he hung
Oubaas
Giraffe's
like a bat
on a
wall.
"'Go down, go down,
little
Tortoise!
"
'
Do you know,
little
Red
Tortoise, in
swallow you
one moment
I
could
'
Face page 136
THE LITTLE RED TORTOISE You choke me
!
speak
hardly
throat
his
;
137
The Old Blue One
'
was
so
could full
of
tortoise.
"
'
'
Peep
!
peep
and held on more "
said the
!
tightly than ever.
Come up, come me The Old '
up, little Tortoise
'
kill
Red One,
little
Blue
!
You
!
One was stamping
and gurgling now. "
'
'
Peep
peep and hung on with
He
!
said the
!
'
thought,
hard bent beak as
his
No
have sailed down
too
!
Red One,
little
this
many red
of
well.
my
nation
I
won't
sloot.
let go.'
" I
tell
you, baasjes,
Oubaas
Giraffe danced
and pranced over the veld he screamed and bellowed he gurgled and swallowed he ;
;
;
tried to get the little
he
tried to get
The
little
Red Tortoise down, and
him up
Red One
;
but
it
clunor o fast
was no to
him
he was quite choked, and sank down sand and died. "
Then
the
little
and went home
had
killed
Oubaas
Mam-ma
till
in the
Red Tortoise crawled
to tell his
use.
out,
that he
Giraffe and that his nation
i
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
38
Ach
could have peace again.
proud of him "
'
It's
may
my
!
'
Come
my
here,
little
Crab, that
put buchu under your arm.
crooked-legged
When
Come,
one, let your mother
little
sprinkle you with buchu "
but she was
not for nothing you were born red,'
she said. I
!
' !
she had sprinkled him with buchu,
they went and told their friends, and all the Tortoise nation rejoiced and went and had a great feast off Oubaas Giraffe as he lay dead in the veld. "
And
they thought more of the
Tortoise than ever.
Even
who had been angry is wiser than we are.
We
he says.
all,
P'r'aps, after
the
Young Ones,
with him, said, will listen to
there '
in
being born a certain colour.'
Red
little
is
'
He
what
something
XV.
THE OSTRICH HUNT. THE
next day
to lessons
the time that was not given
all
and meals was spent by the
little
scouring the veld for a red tortoise. Disappointment at their fruitless search found in
boys vent
in
no measured terms when Outa Karel the
in
appeared
dining-room at his usual
hour. "
Ach, to hear them now
them with
ing
his
amused
tolerance.
tortoises
?
will
they
" !
he
said, regard-
wide-mouthed smile of "
Does
it
then rain red
And how
can the baasjes think find at the first shot a thing that
only comes once in a thousand years
"Well," said Willem, just
we
have been the time to
know ?
"
stoutly, for one.
" ?
"it might
How
were
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
140 "
asked
Outa,"
you know when
"
little
it
Jan,
earnestly,
do
be red tortoise time
will
"
again
?
"
Aja,
baasjes,"
Outa
said
"it
readily,
He
won't be long now. Let Outa think." performed a tattoo on the red kopdoek
a
sure sign that he was in the thick of mental "
gymnastics.
thousand,
my
What comes
a
before
just
"
baasjes
?
"
Nine hundred and ninety-nine," answered Pietie, who was good at arithmetic. "
Now, yes," said Outa, knew it must be nearly
" I
triumphantly, time.
It
nine
is
hundred and ninety-nine years since there was a red tortoise, so next year this time baasjes can begin,
my
begin
baasjes,
to
look
for
because
it
creeping out of the egg then. won't be in this veld.
it
far
away where people
Must Outa
The
will
Only
only be
And
p'r'aps
be mi^ht o
It
far,
know about a
don't
red tortoise, and so no one
one.
will
look for him. "
another story about him ? sly old man had taken the best way
of escaping
tell
more
questions.
The
little
boys
THE OSTRICH HUNT
141
gathered round and listened wide-eyed as he told the story of the Tortoises hunting the
Ostriches. "
Oubaas
After
toises
was dead, the Torfor a long time, and
Giraffe
had a nice
life
then there came into their veld Old Three
pap-pa,
and
his
aunties,
and
children,
wives,
and
and
full
tortoises
them.
It
Oubaas tortoises
was
!
Alia
all
began
wherever they could just
the
Giraffe used to
thought
talked and talked,
same
!
The whole
of them, and they
eating
and
uncles,
friends.
there were a lot of Ostriches
veld was
mam-ma and
Ostrich, with his
the
Sticks,
like
go about.
find
when
And
the
and
they
but they couldn't
make
and
thought,
a plan that would drive the Ostriches away. "
too,
The
little
Red Tortoise was
but he didn't talk
till
thinking,
he had his plan
Then he called all the Tortoises The Old Ones came because they together. wanted to hear what the wise little Red One had to say, and the Young Ones came beready.
cause ever since he had killed Oubaas Giraffe
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
142
When
they had listened to him. '
together he said,
all
It
they were
now goes on
by Old
long, this hunting of the Tortoises
Three Sticks and
too
Let us change
his friends.
places and let us, the Tortoise people, go and
hunt Ostriches.'
"'Peep! peep!' cried all the young Tortoises But the Old they were quite ready. :
Ones
'
said,
One?
How
Ostriches "
'
It
is
the
this
Is is
it
wise for
possible
little
us
to
Red hunt
'
?
possible, because Ostriches never
run straight, but always a little in the round, and a little in the round, so that in the end if
they run long enough they
Now
the place they began from. certain
us
let
day
where the Ostriches
make two long always outside,
in
on,
will call
one
and they
into
like to hunt,
on a
the veld
and
;
one
ring,
let
us
very large,
other, smaller, inside.
when Old Three
we
then go
yes,
to
rows, not straight out but
the round
and the
come again
Sticks and his friends to the other
will
flee
Then come
and drive them
through the midst of
THE OSTRICH HUNT round and round and round
us,
till
143
they can
no longer.'
flee
"
'
'
said the young Tortoises, Peep peep and the Old Ones joined in. They saw that it was a good plan, so they all went to the !
!
hunting veld of Old Three Sticks and his friends and spread themselves out, as the
Red
little
"
Tortoise had said.
Soon
the Ostriches came, pecking, peck-
ing, as they "
The
walked.
Tortoises sat very
baasjes, just waiting,
till
little '
Peep "
'
"
'
!
my
two
rings.
Then
Red
Tortoise gave the signal, 'Peep! and at once the calling began.
Are you there I
waiting,
the Ostriches were
right in the middle of the
the
still,
am
went on
all
here,'
'
?
called the first Tortoise.
said
round the
and so
it
one calling
to
the next, circle,
the other.
"'What
are you doing?'
called the first
one. "
Hunting Ostriches,' said the next, and so it went on all round the circle again, one calling to the other.
OUT A KAREL'S STORIES
H4
"The
Ostriches could see nothing. They could only hear voices calling. looked They
each other and
at
'
said,
What
are
these
army come
to
Let us get away.' They were very frightened and began run, and as far as they ran they heard
to
voices?
hunt
It
surely a great
is
us.
"
:
"
'Are you there?'
"
'
"
'
am here.' What are you I
"
"
'
?
doing
'
Hunting Ostriches.' So it went on, over and over again.
The
Tortoises never moved, only kept calling out.
And
the Ostriches ran faster and faster,
the round,
at last they
till
were so
all in
tired they
any more. First one fell, and then another, and another, and another, till couldn't run
there were heaps of
them lying about, and
where they fell they were too tired to move.
just
"Then
still.
They
the Tortoises gathered together
and they bit Old Three family and friends on their
they were very
many
Sticks and
his
longo
lay quite
all
necks and killed them.
Ui
4>
o 1>
_c
h
THE OSTRICH HUNT "Since then the Tortoises have had peace from the Long-necked People OubaasGiraffe
and old Three
Sticks.
only the Things
It is
Crows and Lammervangers, hunt them, and baasjes know how
of the Air, like that
still
they do
They catch a poor Tortoise in their claws and fly away with him, high up over a ?
and then they drop him on the stones and there he lies with his shell kabloops
kopje,
!
all
broken, and without a shell
Tortoise live
And
?
how can a
then the Thing of the
Air comes and eats him up, and that is the end of the poor Tortoise. But a Red Tortoise they never touch.
It
that frightens them.
So
were right when they after
thing,
all,
in
is
his colour, baasjes,
the
Young '
said,
There born
being
Tortoises is
some-
a certain
colour.'
"After the Ostrich hunt, the little Red Tortoise was sprinkled with buchu under both arms, and his
song
Mam-ma
sang him
this
:
The
little
Sprinkle
crook-legged one
it
!
with buchu under
K
I
could sprinkle arms.
its
it,
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
146
The I
little
red crab
sprinkle the
!
The
little
Wise One
!
buchu under both arms.
For the Long-necks, they that ate It has found a way to kill them
us,
;
So we sprinkle it, the little Red One, Sprinkle the buchu under both arms."
The had to
when Outa
usual discussion took place
finished,
and
be a Tortoise,
"Why, my
at last Pietie said, I'd
little
"
If
I
had
be a red one."
master?"
"
Because the Crows and Lammervangers don't catch it. To be swallowed by an ostrich or stick in a giraffe's throat would not be so bad, but I'd hate to be broken on the stones." "
Ach!
my baasje, no matter how Old
Friend
Death comes, we are never ready for him. When Outa was young he was nearly killed by a troop of springbucks, and he thought, '
No, not toch trampled
down the river is flood came and the
to
death
;
better.'
the
river carried
when the
life
Outa
just as hard as
the springbucks were on him.
same when the hut was
be
But when
carried
away, he fought for his
to
burnt,
It
was
and when
THE OSTRICH HUNT mad
the
147
chased Outa across the veld.
bull
Over and over again the same.
Always
another sort of death seems better.
Always
Old Friend Death
a
man
not quite
for him."
ready "
finds
And now how would you
find you,
like him to Outa?" asked Willem with much
interest.
A whimsical smile spread over the old man's "Ach!
face.
sun,
my
to hear
baasje,
him
!
Just sitting in the
by the skeer-kraal
wall,
where
many, many years. When he comes I will say, Morning, Old Friend, you have been a long time on the road ach so long, that I am tired of waiting. Let us go I
have
sat for so
'
!
at once.'
A
person needn't pack up for that
drop my old sheepskin kaross, and take Old Friend Death's hand and trek, baasjes.
I'll
just
him show me the way. It is far, my baasjes, far to that land, and no one ever comes back
let
from
it.
Then someone
else will
tell
the
by the fire there will be no Outa any more to talk to the little masters." His voice had dropped to a musing tone. stories
:
i
OUTA KAREL'S STORIES
48 "
Don't
Don't
!
"
choked
cried Pietie in a
!
voice.
"Outa, you mustn't say such things," said Willem, and they each seized one of Outa's crooked hands, while
Jan clung to his old coat as though he would never let it go. " " I want He mustn't my Outa," he cried. I
go away.
little
my Outa
want
"
Karel
!
The old man's eyes glistened with a moisture "
not often seen in them.
Still
baasjes," he said, stroking "
another.
He
sad.
and
his
tell
A
yet."
grotesque to
keep
The
foolish stories
face.
their
kind
Nooi say
for
Outa
little if
And do Ach
?
hearts
!
my little
make them will sit
many
broke
caressing smile "
to
He
not going yet.
!
one and then
first
Outa doesn't want
is
still
!
they then want to think of it !
the eyes are juicy?
the sun because
friendly. is
like a
playfully
Look how
it
to
toss
sitting
and well Outa
lively
bull-calf
them.
the
sounds so nice and
:
young
will
No, Outa
only said about the skeer-kraal and in
nights
over his
But what
!
here
!'
"
He
pretended
That's right,
my
THE OSTRICH HUNT children,
now you laugh
bull-calves
hut
is
must also go
calling Outa. well.
149
But youngthe kraal, and the
again.
in
Night,
my
baasjes, night,
To-morrow Outa
will tell Sleep them another beautiful story. Ach, the dear little ones So good to their ugly Outa " Followed by a chorus of "good-nights"
night.
!
!
from the children, the old
man
shuffled away,
not knowing that he had spoken with prophetic voice, and that Friend Death would find him,
even as he wished,
sitting o in the
sun by the skeer-kraal.
But that was not yet awhile, and he told many stories before setting out on the Great
Trek
for
the
Unknown Veld whence no
traveller returns.
Lift,
c>
n
;&
t
GLASGOW: PKINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND
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