The Covenant (186 page)
Authors: James A. Michener
In writing of a people with a language as evocative as Afrikaans, the temptation is to lard the narrative with a spate of colorful short words like
kloof
(ravine) or astonishing compounds like
onderwyskollegesportsterreine
(education college sports fields). I try to avoid this device, judging it to be exhibitionism which does not aid the reader. However, to write of the Afrikaner without a seasoning of his language would be an injustice. I have, therefore, used those few words without which the narrative would lack verisimilitude, and in this glossary have marked with an asterisk those which can be found in our larger dictionaries as English adoptions.
*ASSEGAI
slender hardwood spear
Arabic
BAAS
master; boss
*BAOBAB
tree with swollen trunk
Bantu
BAYETE
royal salute
Zulu
*BILTONG
strips of sun-dried, salted meat (jerky)
*BOBOTIE
ground meat, curry, custard
Malay
*BOER
farmer (capitalized: South African of Dutch or Huguenot descent)
*COMMANDO
Boer military unit (member of such unit)
*DAGGA
marijuana
Hottentot
DANKIE
thanks
*DISSELBOOM
main shaft of ox wagon
*DOMINEE
minister of Afrikaner churches
FONTEIN
natural spring (fountain)
HARTEBEEST HUT
wattle-and-daub hut with low walls, no windows
*IMPI
regiment of Zulu warriors
Bantu
*INSPAN
harness draft animals
JA
yes
*KNOBKERRIE
club with knobbed head
Hottentot
*KOPJE
small hill, often flat-topped
*KRAAL
African village; enclosure for livestock
Portuguese
*LAAGER
defensive camp encircled by wagons
*LOBOLA
cattle paid for bride
Bantu
*MEALIES
British maize; American corn (hominy grits)
*MEERKAT
small mammal (resembles prairie dog)
M
EJUFFROUW
Miss; young unmarried lady
M
EVROUW
Mrs.; becomes Mevrou
*
M
FECANE
the crushing (forced migration following Zulu consolidation)
Bantu
M
IJNHEER
Mr.; becomes Mynheer and Meneer
*MORGEN
land measure (about two acres)
N
ACHTMAAL
night meal (Holy Communion) (becomes Nagmaal in Afrikaans)
OUBAAS
old boss (old fellow; grandfather)
OUMA
grandmother
*OUTSPAN
unharness draft animals
*PREDIKANT
clergyman (especially of Dutch Reformed churches)
*RAND
unit of currency worth about one dollar (abbreviation of Witwatersrand)
*RONDAVEL
hut with circular floor plan
*SJAMBOK
short whip of rhinoceros or hippopotamus hide
Malay
from
Persian
SKOLLIE
hooligan (especially Cape Coloured)
*SLIM
clever; crafty; cunning; shrewd (the original English meaning of this word)
*SMOUS
itinerant merchant (peddler)
German
*SPOOR
track or trail of man or beast
*STOEP
stoop (porch)
*TREK
arduous migration (especially by ox wagon)
TREKBOER
nomadic grazier
TSOTSI
member of street gang
Bantu
*UITLANDER
outlander (capitalized: foreigner, especially on the gold fields)
*VELD
open grassland with scattered shrubs and trees (veldt is archaic)
*VELDKORNET
minor district official (in military: lieutenant)
*VELDSKOEN
rawhide homemade shoe (also veldtskoen)
VERDOMDE
damned; cursed
V.O.C. Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (United East India Company)
*VOLK
nation; people
V
OORTREKKER
forward trekker (member of the 1834–1837 Great Trek)
V
RYMEER
Freedom Lake (in Dutch: Vrijmeer)
Pronunciation:
In general, words are pronounced as they look, except that J = Y; V = F; W = V; OE = U. The name Van Wyk = Fan Vake; and for no reason that can be explained, Uys = Ace. Vrymeer, of course, is Fraymeer.
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Tales of the South Pacific
The Fires of Spring
Return to Paradise
The Voice of Asia
The Bridges at Toko-Ri
Sayonara
The Floating World
The Bridge at Andau
Hawaii
Report of the County Chairman
Caravans
The Source
Iberia
Presidential Lottery
The Quality of Life
Kent State: What Happened and Why
The Drifters
A Michener Miscellany: 1950–1970
Centennial
Sports in America
Chesapeake
The Covenant
Space
Poland
Texas
Legacy
Alaska
Journey
Caribbean
The Eagle and the Raven
Pilgrimage
The Novel
James A. Michener’s Writer’s Handbook
Mexico
Creatures of the Kingdom
Recessional
Miracle in Seville
This Noble Land: My Vision for America
The World Is My Home
WITH A. GROVE DAY
Rascals in Paradise
WITH JOHN KINGS
Six Days in Havana
J
AMES
A. M
ICHENER
, one of the world’s most popular writers, was the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning
Tales of the South Pacific
, the best-selling novels
Hawaii, Texas, Chesapeake, The Covenant
, and
Alaska
, and the memoir
The World Is My Home
. Michener served on the advisory council to NASA and the International Broadcast Board, which oversees the Voice of America. Among dozens of awards and honors, he received America’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1977, and an award from the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities in 1983 for his commitment to art in America. Michener died in 1997 at the age of ninety.
Read on for an excerpt from James A. Michener’s
Hawaii
BOUNDLESS DEEP
M
ILLIONS UPON MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO, WHEN THE CONTINENTS
were already formed and the principal features of the earth had been decided, there existed, then as now, one aspect of the world that dwarfed all others. It was a mighty ocean, resting uneasily to the east of the largest continent, a restless ever-changing, gigantic body of water that would later be described as pacific.
Over its brooding surface immense winds swept back and forth, whipping the waters into towering waves that crashed down upon the world’s seacoasts, tearing away rocks and eroding the land. In its dark bosom, strange life was beginning to form, minute at first, then gradually of a structure now lost even to memory. Upon its farthest reaches birds with enormous wings came to rest, and then flew on.
Agitated by a moon stronger then than now, immense tides ripped across this tremendous ocean, keeping it in a state of torment. Since no great amounts of sand had yet been built, the waters where they reached shore were universally dark, black as night and fearful.
