Two Bucks and the Doe

It may be thought that, as a sequel to this somewhat remarkable scene in
which I was absolutely bowled over--perhaps bowled out would be a better
term--by a Kafir girl who, after bending me to her will, had the genius
to drop me before I repented, as she knew I would do so soon as her back
was turned, thereby making me look the worst of fools, that my relations
with that young lady would have been strained. But not a bit of it. When
next we met, which was on the following morning, she was just her easy,
natural self, attending to my hurts, which by now were almost well,
joking about this and that, inquiring as to the contents of certain
letters which I had received from Natal, and of some newspapers that
came with them--for on all such matters she was very curious--and so
forth.

Impossible, the clever critic will say--impossible that a savage could
act with such finish. Well, friend critic, that is just where you are
wrong. When you come to add it up there's very little difference in all
main and essential matters between the savage and yourself.

To begin with, by what exact right do we call people like the Zulus
savages? Setting aside the habit of polygamy, which, after all, is
common among very highly civilised peoples in the East, they have a
social system not unlike our own. They have, or had, their king, their
nobles, and their commons. They have an ancient and elaborate law, and
a system of morality in some ways as high as our own, and certainly more
generally obeyed. They have their priests and their doctors; they are
strictly upright, and observe the rites of hospitality.