Then I turned my head
and continued to superintend the cutting of the tusk. Presently a shadow
fell upon me. I looked up, and saw that the girl was standing before me,
the basket of mealies still on her head.
"'Mareme, Mareme,' she said, gently clapping her hands together. The
word Mareme among these Matuku (though she was no Matuku) answers to
the Zulu 'Koos,' and the clapping of hands is a form of salutation very
common among the tribes of the Basutu race.
"'What is it, girl?' I asked her in Sisutu. 'Are those mealies for
sale?'
"'No, great white hunter,' she answered in Zulu, 'I bring them as a
gift.'
"'Good,' I replied; 'set them down.'
"'A gift for a gift, white man.'
"'Ah,' I grumbled, 'the old story--nothing for nothing in this wicked
world. What do you want--beads?'
"She nodded, and I was about to tell one of the men to go and fetch some
from one of the packs, when she checked me.
"'A gift from the giver's own hand is twice a gift,' she said, and I
thought that she spoke meaningly.
"'You mean that you want me to give them to you myself?'
"'Surely.'
"I rose to go with her. 'How is it that, being of the Matuku, you speak
in the Zulu tongue?' I asked suspiciously.
"'I am not of the Matuku,' she answered as soon as we were out of
hearing of the men. 'I am of the people of Nala, whose tribe is the
Butiana tribe, and who lives there,' and she pointed over the mountain.
'Also I am one of the wives of Wambe,' and her eyes flashed as she said
the name.
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