Hill of Fools by R.L. Peteni

Author:R.L. Peteni [Peteni, R.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781803288468
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

VIII

Ntabeni Hits Back

Three days later Ntabeni went up the Hill of Fools, to a spot on the hilltop which was the favourite rendezvous of the Hlubi boys, especially the bigger ones. The boys liked this spot because it commanded a good view of almost every part of Kwazidenge village. From here they could see their girls as they left their homes to go to the river or the fields or the woods. They could always follow them if they wished and escort them. They could also watch the movements of Thembu boys and girls across the river, but they never interfered with them. The only occasion for contact between Hlubi boys and Thembu boys was a faction fight. There was no need to pursue Thembu girls. There were more than enough girls in Kwazidenge for Hlubi boys. There was no need to dodge the sticks of Thembu boys just because your head had become swollen with love for a Thembu girl. So both the Hlubi boys and the Thembu boys left the enemy girls alone. Very few had ever ventured to pursue an enemy girl throughout the long period of hostility between the two villages. During the last few years not one had attempted it. Not even Diliza, the aggressive Hlubi warrior boy, known and feared by Hlubi and Thembu alike, had been daring enough to venture beyond the Xesi river and taste the Thembu beauties.

No one could remember when the rivalry between the Hlubis and the Thembus began. It was much older than any living man in the two villages. The oldest men remembered vaguely something of the early feuds which had been recounted by their fathers or grandfathers, and the versions differed from family to family. But a common factor in all versions was the Xesi river. The story was told that there was a time when the river was much wider and had more water than it now had. In those days the big boys of the two villages swam regularly in the river pool in summer and held organized swimming contests. The leading warrior boy of the two villages, who was the most skilled at stick-fighting, was always at the head of boys’ affairs and automatically took charge of these swimming contests. Boys moved freely from one village to the other and made love to any girl they fancied. The leader always had the best of everything, including girls. But one year there were two bulls, one a Hlubi, the other a Thembu, and they were evenly matched. Their stick-fights always ended in a stalemate. Neither could penetrate the defence of the other. The two bulls quarrelled over the girls and the direction of affairs. The other boys took sides in the dispute, each according to his village. Every swimming contest ended up as a faction fight. Boys went to the Xesi river to fight, not to swim. After a time, the art of swimming was lost and the art of fighting was cultivated. It was

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