The White Hecatomb, and Other Stories

One of South Africa's best known authors William Charles Scully pens the short story collection "The White Hecatomb, and Other Stories". The stories provide a vivid picture of South African native life in the period before the coming of white men. "Then the men sharpened their spears once more, and we set our faces to the southward. We covered the face of the land like the locusts we were fleeing from, and the tribes fled before us like game before a troop of wild dogs. When we crossed the great river (the Orange) we turned to the eastward, and over-ran the country of the Abatembu, who never stood to fight us on a single occasion. Then we turned to the northward, and wandered on, secure in our great numbers, and driving herds of spoil. At length we crossed the Umtata River and took possession of the mountain range between that and the Inxu River. Here, we said, we will make a home, and now we will cease from wandering about like wild animals. We had spoiled the Abatembu of grain, so we broke the ground and again sowed millet, of which we gathered a good harvest. We built huts, and we thought that at length we should have rest. I was then a young girl, hardly old enough to marry…"