In the meantime the whole tribe joins in a dance. This is continued throughout the day at least, and often until after midnight. Songs are often sung in which a chorus of long-continued praise is shouted forth by the superstitious natives.
Often this praise may be premature. The rain maker may fail, and the young and tender corn wither in the drought.
Other charms are then tried. The young men of the tribe form a large circle to encompass the side of a mountain,—the haunt of the klipspringers. Gradually they surround the poor creatures, until several specimens of this antelope have been taken captive. It is believed that the voices of these animals have the power to attract rain.
The cunning, wily rain doctor urges the poor hunted creatures about the kraal, or cattle pen, and by pinching, prodding, and other tortures, induces them to utter their cries. Should his efforts prove unavailing and the drought continue, the impostor, believing flight to be his only protection, seeks refuge in this cowardly way, and some other member of the tribe is selected to serve as rain maker.
Truly, in the eyes of the tribe, the rain maker is an important personage. When members of a tribe visit him to induce him to invoke the aid of the elements, he often exhibits his so-called magic powers for the amusement and to the amazement of his credulous visitors.
When he believes them to be sufficiently awed by his charms, he dismisses them with minute directions as to certain observances to be held, without which his charms will fail. Some of these instructions are of the most trivial nature. On no account are they, like Lot's wife, to look backward, nor must they hold any conversation; they must compel every person they meet to turn back and accompany them home; and there are many other directions equally absurd.
Should rain fall, all credit is given to the wonderful power of the rain maker; should the drought continue, the simple-hearted fanatics blame themselves and say they must have failed to carry out the magician's instructions to the letter.
Of course, much time is spent in all these ceremonies, and, in the natural tide of events, the drought frequently passes, and the rain maker is gratefully regarded as the benefactor of his tribe.
The peculiar and terrific war dance of the Kaffirs is described by an observer as a performance far more astonishing than pleasing, exciting alarm rather than admiration, and displaying in rapid succession the habits and ferocious passions of a savage community.
"Let the reader picture to himself a hundred or more unclad Africans, besmeared and disfigured with copious defilements of red clay, and assuming with frantic gestures all the characteristic vehemence of a furious engagement.