THE KAFFIR CHILDREN AT A PARTY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 152, 24 December 1926, Page 14

THE KAFFIR CHILDREN AT A PARTY

In a fascinating book about the Kaffirs we learn how important, a thing is a children's party among the kraals of South Africa. Tho hoad boy of one kraal conies to iuvits all tho boys, big and little, of the next; and then tne head girl brings a similar message. Invitations are sent long before, sometimes as long as a fortnight. Often the party is very large— as many as a hundred children—and several kraals receive the same invitation. Great preparations are made. All tho children are greased all over to make them look smart and shiny, and all wear their best beads and bangles. Much advice is dinned into their ears by their mothers. They aro not to eat too much, lest thoy be thought to be starved at home. They aro not to smack their lips. They are to speak courteously to all old persons. They aro to refrain from hitting strange dogs. Above all, they are not to fight. Oh tho great day, "as the twilight dies and a rich afterglow of the deepest purple or violot suffuses tho sky, there can be seen a string of little children streaming out of a hut on hands and knees—aU sUhouetted against a | few ivwAymg olon*s ©? pwmge Iboloto—v

•uid hurrying over tho veld in single file •ilong the narrow kafftr footpath. At length, thin thin, wavy lino of excited, talkative, chattering children arrives;it tho kraal, which is the focus of many other groups of children, dimly ncc'n to be converging on it in tho dusk."' Tho little guests salute the head man of! the place, and then arc told what huts are net apart for tho evening. Tho party as a rulo la3ts till dawn, so some Imfs are reserved for tired children, who can go and lie down, and return, if they like, when refreshed; but for a long time no one is tired.

Tho first great interest o£ the evening centres in food. There arc roust mice ami ro;i«t birds in plr-rity—goals meat", sour milk, and pumpkins. J)ancing and games begin. Some of the Kume.s arc merely imitative. Law Cduris, for instance, is a favourite game', and lately Missionary Meetings. Toward morning the big boys get very wild, and fight till they arc all over bruises and cutn. At length, in tho light of dawn they go horn's, the big lioys "aching in limb and bruised in body"; moat of the children are very tired, and all of them \ory cross and bedraggled, not at all like the eager and excited children who started off for the party but twelve hours before with such gaiety and joy, Yet, such in the love of. :i. party that every one of thorn will look forward to the next party w::i delight.