A STRANGE PEOPLE.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 17, Issue 17, 26 April 1895, Page 7

A STRANGE PEOPLE.

I Akgosy. r In tbedistrcs of Bu^temburg, Tr^ns t vaa!, tbern is « wide plum, dreary ant ! forlorn, overgrown wiih tall grass, one . seemingly uninhabited. It is an un- , pleasant tract of country ; the climate malarial, th-j air oppressive. The whole ihicg looks sickly and sad. About half-past four one bright afternoon we, a party of six young men, were slowly trave ling across this p!aia on our way norfch. Tho waggon was making slow work of if, for the peat clogged the wheels. I had fallen behind the others v/i'h a friend, engaged in deep converSiiion. We had noi; observed that we were beiDg left far in the rear. My companion was a Tiansvaaller of the district;, and an experienced hunter, very intelligent and observanr. It was a pleasure and a privilege to be in his company, especially as the country was atr^cge to me, and I had always been at!r.*.cfced by nature. As we were going quietly forward, I suddenly saw my companion start, and, holding up a a waroiog finger, listen a'ten'ivdy. Then, stepping aside, he made made me equat dowu beside him in tbe grass. A few momenta later he pointed forward ; six 1 ons, two full-grown, four half-grown, sia'ked majestically in front of us. They proseeded some fifty yard?, end then disappeared behind a ridge of hilla to the right. We walked forward more quickly, all my faculties on the alert. LrokiDg past some reed? in front of us, he showed me two quaggas graz'ng nearly two hundred yards off. He motioned to me to cover tbe front one whilst be took the hindmost. We fired, and each brought dovrn his quarry. I felt sorry that we had slaughtered thfso animals — needlessly, as I thought i — and said bo to my companion. ' I nover kill anything unnecessarily," he replied. ' Jusfc walk on : you'll see presently. We went on for about eighty yards. ' Now, turn round and look,' he said. I did so. The sky was literally moving ; iD was a gieat swarm of vultures on the wing, circling downwards towards their prey. He answered my unspoken question : * These birds seem to be always up there on the look-out, and appaar wifcbin ten seconds of my shooUng any game." ' Bat surely you have not made us shoot the quaggas to feed these creatures V * No,' returned he, ' I have not. Let us go on.' We had proceeded some 50 yardp, when, my friend observed : ' Now, we w?ll turn over here to the left; there ia something I wish to show you.' I obeyed, and we proceeded up a small ascent. Just as we came to the top I started back, for right at my feet I saw a remarkable sight. It; was a large basin of some twenty yards in diameter, bubbling over with clear water, which was discharged through a small outlet at the further side. This stream vxn on for a short distance, and then disappeared into the earth as mysteriously aa it rose. Below us was a footp-ith leading down to the brink, and all about thß water's edge and in the path we saw footpiints of birds, wolves, quapgas, deer, buffaloes — and of human beings. The3e last were very small, flat and unshapely—a miserable specimen of the human foot. Before I could speak my companion paid, 'Look back at the game.' I complied, and to my amazement saw that round the carcases were collected, not as I expected, a mass of hyenas and vultures, but a crowd of people, men and womea busy cutting them up. Everything was going on in peife.cfc order and &ilenco. There was no unseemly scramble ; each seemed to know hia work and how to do it, One man, evidently the chief, stood on one fido to superintend. He gave his commands, and they were implicitly obeyed. It ssemed as though it were a sorb of ' cuttlng«up " parade. Every now and tben they all stopped for a few moments, and then fell-to with renewed vigor. In stature they were very small, barely clad, wined with tiny bows and arrows. The women were a little better clad — in Bkinß mostly. I couid distinguish (hem receiving and cleaning the moat. At first I was dumbfounded, then charmed, then saddeoed. I could have wept — the scene was so unique, so weird, so depressing. There was something bo uocanny about it all. The sky overhead wag swarming with vultures. On the brow of a small rise the six lions had reappeared, and stood looking sleepily on. In the midst worked this group of strange beinga of the earth. The sky was dull and grey j a low breeze moaned over the tops of the reeda, and we could distinctly hear the sound v>f the cutting borne to us on the wind. The chief standing on the edge of the group was evidently fearing the parties on all sides. We could see him gazs now un at the vultures, then at the lionp, then at us, and he kept his arrow fitted to his bow ready for uae. Tho lions were squatting down on the bill waiting for them to finish. Surely not much of a supper would vultures, hyenas, and these brutes have for themselves ! ' It iafor them we bhot the quaggas,' broke in my comrade. * Poor things ; it is a hard time, this, for them. Tha game ia gradually being shot or Other* wiae diiven away.' * But who are they V ( I do not know. The whole plain ia full of tucm. I have shot scores of quaggas and other game, and alwayß seen thia result.' What I had seen was like a dream, yet it all occurred exactly as I have described it. Never can I forget this curious advonture and the strange people on the liustemburg plain.