Between Snow and Fire — page 70: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

> he a , = —_ ~~ 62 "TWEEN SNOW AND FIRE. “No, I'll go. I’ve done anyhow. Besides, I want to speak to him.”’ Followed by the old Kafir, Eustace unlocked the store- room—a dark, cool chamber forming part of an outbuilding. The carcase of a sheep, freshly killed that morning, dangled from a beam. Piles of resms, emitting a salt, rancid odour— kegs of sheep-dip, huge rolls of Boer tobacco, bundles of yoke-skeys, and a dozen other things requisite to the details of farm work were stowed around or disposed on shelves, On one side was a grindstone and a carpenter’s bench. Eustace cut off a liberal length from one of the rolls of tobacco and gave it to the old Kafir. Then he filled his Own pipe. * Josdne ?”’ * Nose?” “You are no fool, Josane. You have lived a good many years, and your head is nearly as snow-sprinkled as the summit of the Great Winterberg in the autumn. What do you thing of last night’s performance over yonder ?”’ The old man’s shrewd countenance melted into a slight smile and he shook his head. “The Gaikas are fools,” he replied. “ They have no quarrel with the English, yet they are clamouring for war. Their country is fertile and well watered, yet they want to throw it away with both hands. They are mad.” ‘Will they fight, Josane?”’ “ Au! Who can say for certain,” said the old man with an expressive shrug of the shoulders. “ Yet, was ever such athing seen? The dog wags histail. But in this case it is the tail that wags the dog.” ‘How so, Josane ?” “The chiefs of the Gaikas do not wish for war. The old men do not wish for it. But the young men—the boys— are eager for it. The women taunt them, they say; tell them they have forgotten how to be warriors. So the boys and the women clamour for war, and the chiefs and the old men give way. Thus the tail wagsthe dog. MHau/”’ “ And what about the Gcalékas ?”’ “The Gcalékas? It is this way, Vdose. If you shut up two bulls alone in the same kraal, if you put two scorpions into a mealie stamp, how long will it be before they fight? So it is with the Gcalékas and the Fingoes. The land is not large enough for both. The Gcalékas are ready for war.” - (ECOANIKE NCO KS (E(0)