his wife had escaped and returned to Umgabe’s kraal,
and on the arrival of the Chartered Company’s
pioneer force Mashah placed his services at their disposal.
He greatly distinguished himself by saving the
lives of a band of the pioneers when on a wild prospecting
trip, for which service he received a present
of a Martini-Henry rifle, of which he was naturally
very proud.
Mashah’s Makalanga brethren call him ‘ the
white man’s slave,’ from his devotion to the new race,
and he constantly affirmed that if ever the white man
left this country he would go with them, for he was
heartily sick of the petty jealousies and constant
squabbles of his countrymen. He was a strange object
to look upon with his tawny B.S.A. hat with
an ostrich feather in it, his shirt with a girdle round
his waist, and bare legs. He never once grumbled at
anything he had to do, he was never tired, and kept
our other Kaffirs in excellent order. As for the rest
of them, they were as naked as God made them, save
for the insignificant loin-cloth. -A man called Metz-
wandira was told off as our body-servant, to wash the
cups and plates and spoons, which latter treasures he
counted carefully over to us after every meal. We got
greatly attached to this individual, his manners were
so gentle and courteous and his voice so soft and
silvery. One and all of them were delighted to become
possessed of our rejected milk tins, &c., with which
they made bracelets, seven inches wide, by cutting off
the two ends of the tin and drilling O holes alonOg the
edge. One man tied the lid of a 4 bully beef ’ tin round
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M E T ZW A N D IR A II