Pongoland."

"Why do you lie to me?" I asked "You have been fighting a white man
and for more than sixpence. You knocked him into a sluit and the mud
splashed up over you."

"Yes, Baas, that is so. Your spirit speaks truly to you of the matter.
Yet it wanders a little from the path, since I fought the white man for
less than sixpence. I fought him for love, which is nothing at all."

"Then you are even a bigger fool than I took you for, Hans. What do you
want now?"

"I want to borrow a pound, Baas. The white man will take me before
the magistrate, and I shall be fined a pound, or fourteen days in the
_trunk_ (i.e. jail). It is true that the white man struck me first, but
the magistrate will not believe the word of a poor old Hottentot against
his, and I have no witness. He will say, 'Hans, you were drunk again.
Hans, you are a liar and deserve to be flogged, which you will be next
time. Pay a pound and ten shillings more, which is the price of good
white justice, or go to the _trunk_ for fourteen days and make baskets
there for the great Queen to use.' Baas, I have the price of the justice
which is ten shillings, but I want to borrow the pound for the fine."

"Hans, I think that just now you are better able to lend me a pound than
I am to lend one to you. My bag is empty, Hans."

"Is it so, Baas? Well, it does not matter. If necessary I can make
baskets for the great white Queen to put her food in, for fourteen days,
or mats on which she will wipe her feet. The _trunk_ is not such a bad