And the gentlemen
were both quite familiar with it, and with the word "metse", water.
But there is a word very similar in sound, "Kia timela", I am wandering;
its perfect is "Ki timetse", I have wandered. The party had been
roaming about, perfectly lost, till the sun went down; and,
through their mistaking the verb "wander" for "to be pleased", and "water",
the colloquy went on at intervals during the whole bitterly cold night
in somewhat the following style:
"Where are the wagons?"
REAL ANSWER. "I don't know. I have wandered. I never wandered before.
I am quite lost."
SUPPOSED ANSWER. "I don't know. I want water. I am glad,
I am quite pleased. I am thankful to you."
"Take us to the wagons, and you will get plenty of water."
REAL ANSWER (looking vacantly around). "How did I wander?
Perhaps the well is there, perhaps not. I don't know. I have wandered."
SUPPOSED ANSWER. "Something about thanks; he says he is pleased,
and mentions water again." The guide's vacant stare while trying to remember
is thought to indicate mental imbecility, and the repeated thanks
were supposed to indicate a wish to deprecate their wrath.
"Well, Livingstone HAS played us a pretty trick, giving us in charge
of an idiot. Catch us trusting him again. What can this fellow mean
by his thanks and talk about water? Oh, you born fool! take us to the wagons,
and you will get both meat and water. Wouldn't a thrashing
bring him to his senses again?" "No, no, for then he will run away,
and we shall be worse off than we are now."
The hunters regained the wagons next day by their own sagacity,
which becomes wonderfully quickened by a sojourn in the Desert;
and we enjoyed a hearty laugh on the explanation of their midnight colloquies.
Frequent mistakes of this kind occur. A man may tell his interpreter
to say that he is a member of the family of the chief of the white men;
"YES, YOU SPEAK LIKE A CHIEF," is the reply, meaning, as they explain it,
that a chief may talk nonsense without any one daring to contradict him.
They probably have ascertained, from that same interpreter,
that this relative of the white chief is very poor, having scarcely any thing
in his wagon.
I sometimes felt annoyed at the low estimation in which
some of my hunting friends were held; for, believing that the chase
is eminently conducive to the formation of a brave and noble character,
and that the contest with wild beasts is well adapted for fostering that
coolness in emergencies, and active presence of mind, which we all admire,
I was naturally anxious that a higher estimate of my countrymen
should be formed in the native mind.
