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Cachet, Jan Lion (1838–1912) Early Afrikaans poet of Portuguese-Jewish extraction known for his morality poems (VS: 167 “Die Duistere Vers”).

Cadwallo King of the Britons in the 600s (VS: 171 “Die Duistere Vers”).

caestus A gauntlet or boxing-glove used by pugilists in classical times (H: 241 “Bekkersdal Centenary”).

caesura The break a poet puts into lines of poetry to create a pause; see also meter (CJ: 71 “Art and Feudalism”).

Caliph Haroun Al-Rashid Lit. ‘Aaron the Just’; fifth Caliph in Iraq, famous for his part in A Thousand and One Arabian Nights; supposedly he dressed as a beggar and wandered the streets of Baghdad to overhear what his subjects thought of him (JN: 170; CJ: 138 “Talk of the Town”).

“Call of the Road, The” (IT: 113) The voorkamer crowd share stories of pride and adventures on the road. Some interesting background about the farmers is provided. “To tell you the truth,” Gysbert said, “I am not surprised at that mayor just taking it into his head to pack his things and walk off. I have lived in more than one highveld dorp myself. And I know what sort of things go on there. That’s why I don’t blame that mayor in the least. Just think what it’s like to wake up in the morning and to look at the sunrise, and there’s no mdubu trees or withaaks or maroelas. There’s just a piece of flat veld starting right at your kitchen door, and it has rained, and you’ve got to start ploughing. I can quite understand a person living on the highveld putting a piece of biltong and a spare shirt into a suitcase and walking away from there, then. I mean, isn’t that how quite a few of us landed here, in the Marico? And without a spare shirt, either, in some cases – in some cases that I wouldn’t like to mention here in this voorkamer, I mean.”

“Calling All Patients” (CJ: 201) Thoughts about patients’ role in medical history. Disjointed piece that offers little except inadvertently predicting the hospital TV dramas of the 1980s onward, where patients’ life stories would be equal to those of doctors.

Calvin, John (1509–64) French-born theologian; leader of the Protestant movement against Roman Catholicism; set up a strict religious community in Geneva, Switzerland (CJ: 87 “Dorps of South Africa”).

Campbell, Roy (Ignatius Royston Dunnachie) (1901–57) Poet. Born in Durban to a wealthy family of Scottish and Irish descent, Campbell attended Durban High School and spent a year at Oxford, where he made contact with writers like T. S. Eliot and the Sitwells. He became part of the literary society of London, and published his first long poem, The Flaming Terrapin, in 1924. Returning to SA for an extended visit, he co-founded, with William Plomer and Laurens van der Post, the short-lived literary magazine Voorslag in 1926. His scathing view of conventional white SA is conveyed in The Wayzgoose (1928), published after his return to England. After settling in the south of France in 1928, he published Adamastor (1930), the collection for which he is best known. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 he returned to England, then served as a news correspondent in Spain in 1937 before settling in Portugal. He joined an African regiment upon the outbreak of the Second World War and served in Kenya. After the war Campbell lived in London and worked with the radio service of the BBC, where he was instrumental in getting several of HCB’s Mafeking Road stories read on air. In a letter to HCB in March 1949 he wrote: “I think your stories in Mafeking Road are the best that ever came out of South Africa”, a puff that was used on covers of the volume for many years thereafter. HCB wrote back, asking Campbell to find him a British publisher – something that came to naught (see introduction to MR: 9).

“Camp-fires at Nagmaal” (S&H: 86) A farmer and a self-proclaimed prophet vie for the heart of the same girl. Musings about whether the good old days were quite as good as one remembers lead up to an ultimately sad and unexpected resolution of a love-triangle. “Consequently, the stories that Petrus Steyn had to tell of his experiences in the Kalahari Desert were as fatiguing to listen to as if you were actually trekking along with him. And the further he trekked into the desert the more wearisome his narrative became, on account of the interludes getting fewer, there being less buck and less Bushmen the deeper he got into the interior. Even so, we felt that he was keeping on using the same Bushmen over and over again. There was also a small herd of springbok that we were suspicious about in the same way.”

Cannabis indica A strain of dagga different from and stronger than the more common Cannabis sativa (W: 97).

Cannae, Battle of Famous for the tactical skills displayed; took place in Puglia, Italy, in 216 BCE during the third Punic war, between Hannibal and Lucius (L&O: 102 “Rock Paintings of the Bushman”).

“Canterbury Tales, The” (YB: 87) A verbose yet favourable review of Chaucer’s work for a student magazine. The naiveté and enthusiasm for the classic reminds a jaded reader why Chaucer has retained his appeal over the centuries. See Umpa, The.

Cape cart Two-wheeled four-seater two-horse cart with canvas hood (OTS: 53 “The Night Dress”; S&H: 105 “Dopper and Papist”; UD: 35 “The Picture of Gysbert Jonker”).

Cape Coloured/Coloured/coloured Person of mixed ethnic origin, mostly of African, Khoisan, Malay, white and Chinese descent. The Cape Coloureds were the original group of what is now a much larger ‘coloured’ population spread across SA. Controversial term, sometimes deemed insulting, but also embraced by many people belonging to this ethnic group (H: 113 “Kith and Kin”).

Cape feet Unit of measurement; at 1,033 slightly longer than an English foot; approx. 31 cm; used for property measurements and discontinued in 1959 (UD: 46 “The Ferreira Millions”).

Cape Rebels Citizens of the Cape Colony who joined the forces of the Free State and Transvaal Republics during the Anglo–Boer Wars, an act regarded as treasonous and punishable by death (MR: 130 “The Rooinek”; OTS: 45 “A Boer Rip van Winkel”).

“Cape Revisited, The” (CJ: 112) Notes on the cultural differences between the lush Cape and the dry areas to its north; first of a series of five pieces on the Cape. Beautifully written ‘travel’ piece encompassing nature, culture and architecture. “Because there is the Karoo, with its magnificence of grassless hard earth.”

“Cape Town Castle” (CJ: 119) Second in series of five ‘travel’ pieces on Cape Town. Chilling account of the jail’s atmosphere; contains interesting digressions about types of wood, which relate back to HCB’s carpentry skills acquired while imprisoned. “And then I realised, for the first time, why the entrance to the main gateway of the castle is guarded during visiting hours, so that the visitor can’t run away from the guide.”

cardboard modelling A subject HCB took while at teachers’ training college (CJ: 93 “The Disappearance of Latin”).

Carlton Hotel Built in 1906, it was one of the best hotels in the rapidly expanding Johannesburg; demolished in 1963 to make way for more lucrative buildings; in 1973 a new Carlton Hotel was built, which for a time was the grandest hotel in Africa, but by 1997 inner-city decay caused it to be mothballed (JN: 60).

Carlyle, Thomas (1795–1881) Scottish-born lecturer and author of, among other works, On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History (1841) (CJ: 31 “Art Notes on Charlie Chaplin”).

Carmen Romantic four-act opera by Bizet (H: 120 “Rolled Gold”).

Cask of Jerepigo, A (1964) A selection of HCB’s journalism and autobiographical pieces by Lionel Abrahams. Given HCB’s obsession with the writer, Abrahams appropriately modelled the title on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “A Cask of Amontillado”. A very successful edition, it went into numerous impressions over the years, finally being replaced by the Anniversary Edition’s version of the title (2002; restricted to HCB’s journalism) and My Life and Opinions (2003; autobiographical pieces), both edited by Stephen Gray. “Jerepigo” is the name of a sweet, fortified SA wine, and is used by HCB in his piece “Street Processions”, included here. Heading the selection is a lengthy and very insightful overview of HCB’s life and work, and also of Abrahams’s own association with the writer.

“Caste” (YB: 36) A professor marries a second time and then fears his daughter’s reaction to a lower-class stepmother. A story that starts promisingly, but rapidly becomes ridiculous.

“Casual Conversation” (IT: 109) At Naudé spots the first tourists of the season. Meandering chat about tourism and heritage. “He had thought nothing of the way the tourists were jumping about and uttering strange cries, At Naudé explained, since he had grown to accept the fact that tourists were not quite human, so that nothing they did ever came as a surprise to you, much. Thereupon we all said no, of course, there was nothing in what a tourist did that could awaken any sort of real interest, any more. Even the most ignorant kind of Kalahari Bushman had by that time come to recognise a tourist for what he was. And it was many years since even a Koranna from the reserve had last raised an eyebrow at a tourist’s foolishness.”

“Catholic and Protestant” Favourable review by HCB of The Eagle and the Dove: A Study in Contrasts (1943), a biography of the two saints St Teresa of Avila and St Thérèse of Lisieux, by Vita Sackville-West; in it HCB displays his considerable knowledge of religious matters (L&O: 122 “Five Reviews”).

cat-o’-nine-tails/cat-of-nine-tails Short stick with many knotted thongs or cords attached; used for corporal punishment, especially in the British Navy (CSJ: 145).

cattle smuggling There are frequent references to this practice in HCB’s Bushveld stories, which typically involved farmers smuggling cattle from the Bechuanaland Protectorate (Botswana) into SA to sell on the Johannesburg cattle market. The practice was outlawed for two main reasons. The cattle in Botswana were not treated in accordance with SA veterinary and agricultural regulations, which meant that they held the threat of disease for local SA stocks – and since the rinderpest of the late nineteenth century, this was taken very seriously (although foot and mouth would probably have been the most likely disease that the Botswana cattle would have been carrying). Secondly, there are a cluster of reasons to do with border regulations, taxes and profits: Botswana cattle were bought cheaply; no taxes were paid to the government in the form of import duties, and honest local farmers’ profits would also have been undercut by cattle smuggling. For these reasons, the SA authorities sought to stamp out the practice and maintain tight border controls. There are several references in HCB’s stories to Marico farmers doing prison time after being caught smuggling cattle. The temptation, however, must have been strong: the region had always suffered economic deprivation and lack of opportunities, and smuggling cattle would have provided a way of making relatively easy money on a regular basis.

Celebrating Bosman: A Centenary Selection of Herman Charles Bosman’s Stories (2005) A selection by Patrick Mynhardt of some OSL and Voorkamer stories, with some journalistic and autobiographical pieces, as well as extracts from Cold Stone Jug, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of HCB’s birth. A preface details how Mynhardt became acquainted with and began performing HCB’s stories.

Celliers, Jan F. E. (1865–1940) Afrikaans poet. Born in Wellington and educated in Cape Town, he moved with his parents to Pretoria in 1873. Fought in the Second Anglo–Boer War; helped to found the South African Akademie in 1909. His poem “The Vlakte” (‘The Plain’) is still one of the best known in the Afrikaans language. HCB apparently translated his “Dis Al” into English as a schoolboy, and the poem duly appeared in The Touleier. Founded the literary journal Die Brandwag, which, in a revived form, published “Dit Spook by die Drif”, one of HCB’s early forays into Afrikaans, in April 1948 (see “Ghost at the Drift, The”). Known as a poet of the people of SA; with Leipoldt and Totius part of the triumvirate of poets who after the Second Anglo–Boer War established Afrikaans as a form of expression for a beaten people (VS: 148 “South African Literature”).

c’est la vie (Fr.) Lit. ‘that is life’; an expression, usually accompanied by a sigh of resignation (L&O: 92 “Royal Processions”).

Chaitz, Max The dagga-high Rooker Charlie takes a shop window dummy for his mate Max Chaitz: “Charlie thought that he knew those two dummies, and he thought that the one dummy was his friend Max Chaitz, who kept a restaurant in Cape Town, and that the other dummy was a well-known snooker-player called Pat O’Callaghan. And my friend Rooker Charlie couldn’t understand how Max Chaitz and Pat O’Callaghan should come to be standing there holding animated converse in that shop-window” (YB: 112 “The Recognising Blues”).

Chalmers, Willie Subeditor (with Pierre Bosman) on The New Sjambok and The New L. S. D. Later worked as an artist in Durban, where he painted a portrait of HCB in the late 1940s, never completed (see RB: 99).

“Chanson d’Automne” (Fr.) Lit. ‘Song of Autumn’; poem by Paul Verlaine (L&O: 85 “A Letter from Hades”).

chapeau(-bras) (Fr.) Three-cornered hat (CSJ: 140).

chaplet Wreath to be worn on the head (H: 254 “In the Old Days”).

Chaplin, Charles (Charlie) Spencer (1889–1977) English-born actor, director and composer who found enduring fame in Hollywood as the iconic, dishevelled, bowler-bearing, cane-carrying little tramp (CJ: 30 “Art Notes on Charlie Chaplin”).

Charles I (1600–49) King of England, Scotland and Ireland whose reign was marked by religious friction leading to the First and Second Civil Wars; at the end of the second he was captured and tried and executed for high treason; thereafter the monarchy was abolished and the Commonwealth of England was established – a constitutional monarchy (W: 197).

chases See forme(s) in the chases.

chateau (Fr.) Large house or castle (CSJ: 140).

Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith) (1874–1936) Prolific English writer on diverse subjects whose wit and eccentricity influenced other artists such as Ingmar Bergmann, Franz Kafka, Ernest Hemingway and, more recently, Neil Gaiman (CJ: 108 “Christmas Celebrations”).

Chic Modes Dress boutique in the main street of Kalvyn owned by Dulcie Hartnell; the name is carefully chosen to make sense in French, English and Afrikaans (JN: 58).

Chilvers, Hedley A. (1879–1941) Born in England, he came out to SA for health reasons. Joined The Rand Daily Mail in 1905, on which he served as music and drama critic. The author of many books, of which his The Seven Wonders of South Africa (1929) is probably the best known. It features a chapter called “The Makapaan Cave Affair”. Given the popularity of the book, it is possible that it inspired HCB’s own (very different) version (see “Makapan’s Caves”). Chilvers also contributed to The Touleier.

chivvy/chivvied To be repeatedly told to do something (CSJ: 122).

“Christmas Celebrations” (CJ: 108) Notes on various celebrations across the world. Diverting piece weaving history and anecdote into a plea for true nativity celebrations, yet steers clear of any religious sentiment.

Ciano, Gian Galeazzo (1903–44) Italian minister of foreign affairs and Mussolini’s son-in-law (CJ: 189 “The Rt. Hon. J. H. Hofmeyr”).

Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106–43 BCE) Noble-born Roman philosopher and statesman (JN: 80; CJ: 94 “The Disappearance of Latin”).

Circe Minor goddess from Greek mythology who could change humans into animals (YB: 58 “Heloise’s Teeth”).

“Circumstantial Evidence” (H: 76) The conclusion of Pauline Gerber and Schoolmaster Vermaak’s courtship, snidely speculated upon for the first time by the Marico gossips in “New-year Glad Rags” (IT: 161). Sharp observations on the reliability of hearsay evidence. “‘Doesn’t it strike you, at all,’ Johnny Coen asked, ‘that it can’t both be true, these two different stories about how the schoolmaster came in the end to ask Pauline Gerber to marry him? Don’t you think it’s possible that perhaps both those stories are lies, I mean.’ We were very shocked to hear Johnny Coen using language like that.”

“Class Snobbery in Britain” (CJ: 89) Notes on the class divide. Prescient and amusing assessment of the future of English nobility. “‘I am only a working man, but –’ seems to me the most unfortunately self-righteous platitude that there is in the whole world.”

Claassen, Andries Farmer who bemoans the fact that modern young people buy shredded tobacco instead of slicing it from the roll with a pocketknife (UD: 35 “Picture of Gysbert Jonker”).

claim-jumping The act of usurping a claim held by another (W: 50).

Clark, Mavis Daughter of Mrs Clark and typist of Jack Brummer, she is described as follows: “She was in a dull way inclined to be pretty” (W: 25).

Clark, Mrs Influential socialite and Union Party member; she is the mother of Mavis Clark, to whom she hints at some interesting escapades in her youth (W: 24).

“Clay-pit, The” (OTS: 115) A variation on the classic love triangle between a young woman, a young man, and an older man. A different, more powerful, more complex, and more finished version of “The Ox-riem”. Veldkornet Apie Nel “would not be able to look back on his career with a proper kind of satisfaction if, at the end of it, he would have to admit that he had never succeeded in getting a white man hanged.” See “Reminiscences”.

Cleghorn’s Cleghorn & Harris, department store (OTS: 90 “Louis Wassenaar”).

Clements, Francis Chamberlain Zulu who has been ‘elevated’ and educated by missionaries and academics (YB: 131 “The Urge of the Primordial”).

Clifford, Lago English actor who came to SA in 1902; his voice (as ‘Uncle Joe’ in pioneering radio broadcasts of the mid-1920s) became well known to South Africans. Participated in vaudeville theatre and Stephen Black’s touring companies. Was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for pederasty and there met HCB in 1928. Wrote a series, while in prison, for Black’s The Sjambok, entitled ‘Men I Met in Gaol’, which featured HCB anonymously in July 1929: “The most interesting and intellectual man I met at the Central Prison was a young student – refined, creative, poetical [… .] To me he was like an oasis in a desert” (see appearance). Clifford also made a detailed sketch of the gallows for The Sjambok (28 June 1929).

“Climbing Table Mountain” (CJ: 131) Fifth in a series of travel pieces (see also note on CJ: 208). Tongue-in-cheek description of a city slicker nervously roughing it in the great outdoors. “Even to the untrained eye the line of demarcation between those giant oceans is easily discernible. It is a thick straight line that looks as though it was drawn with a ruler.”

Clinkwood A corundum prospector from the Kwaggapeul region who gives Jack Brummer a start when he turns up unexpectedly (W: 39).

Clown, the A naive young prison guard who is mercilessly teased by HCB on death row, and who unknowingly every night – with tacit encouragement from HCB – washes his hands in the drinking water of Jannie, the guard who had the next shift; Jannie then curses the cleaning staff for not rinsing the buckets properly (CSJ: 53).

Code Napoléon Also known as the Napoleonic Code, it was established under Emperor Napoleon I and prohibited privileges based on birth, guaranteed religious freedom, and promoted government positions based on merit not favour; favourite topic of the failed lawyer Herklaas Huysmans (JN: 83).

Coen, Johnny Lesser character in the Voorkamer stories; a hopeless romantic, he can be trusted to engage in unrequited love relationships, as occurs with Pauline Gerber and Minnie Nienaber; also often tries to make peace among the adversaries of the voorkamer. See Voorkamer sequence.

Coertze, (Lucas) Ignatius (1905–90) Dean of law, poet, and general renaissance man who is rumoured to have designed the prototype of the safari suit, but – according to HCB – an ‘unspeakable’ translator of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (VS: 182 “The Poetry of Elisabeth Eybers”).

Coetsee, Mr Bekkersdal bank manager who refuses At Naudé an overdraft (H: 239 “Bekkersdal Centenary”).

Coetzee, Anna Teacher at Kalvyn Afrikaans Primary School (JN: 55).

Coetzee, Hans Ex-Anglo–Boer War prisoner of war who “got sick at sea from watching the ship going up and down, up and down, all the time” (MR: 120 “Veld Maiden”).

“Coffee that Tasted like Tar, The” (IT: 98) The voorkamer crowd pull Jurie Steyn’s leg about his flu symptoms. One of the weaker Voorkamer stories that has no theme to keep it together and peters out at the end. “Gysbert van Tonder said that he wouldn’t like to go so far as to say that Jurie Steyn wasn’t himself. That was a matter on which he would rather not offer an opinion, Gysbert continued. Maybe Jurie Steyn was himself, and maybe he wasn’t. But what nobody could deny was that at that moment there was something very queer about Jurie Steyn.”

“Coffin in the Loft” (H: 133) Oupa Bekker tells of a ghost who occupied a coffin in the loft of a particular house in his district, and could not be laid to rest, while Gysbert van Tonder tells how a ghost helped him smuggle cattle. A disjointed tale with a somewhat predictable ending. “‘It’s a lonely sort of graveyard,’ Chris Welman explained, ‘and so just out of human nature I didn’t worry to pick my hat up when it fell off.’ Then At Naudé told us about the height of the barbed-wire fence that he had cleared at one leap near Nietverdiend, in the dark, on account of human nature and arising out of what he saw.”

Cohen, Marjorie Employee of Stephen Black who is severely berated by HCB (YB: 114 “Stephen Black”).

“Cold Night, A” (L&O: 52) Two travellers overnight in an abandoned Bushveld schoolhouse where one of them was schoolmaster 20 years earlier. Sweet and humorous autobiographical sketch that evokes nostalgic feelings and ends with a bittersweet twist. “‘I didn’t say all school-teachers are mad. Or all former school-teachers, either,’ Gawie Oosthuizen acknowledged, the warmth from the fire making him gracious. ‘But this one was different. He used to write a lot of things, too. All rubbish, I’ve heard –’.” See Butler, David.

Cold Stone Jug (1949) Described by the author in an epigraph as “A chronicle: being the unimpassioned record of a somewhat lengthy sojourn in prison”, Cold Stone Jug is a semi-autobiographical account of HCB’s four years in prison, from the memorable opening, which recalls his misery straight after the murder and interrogation by fellow prisoners (“‘Murder,’ I answered” CSJ: 45), to his release: “‘Look after yourself, now,’ the gate warder said, ‘You know boob is a bastard. See that you don’t come back.’ I answered, ‘Yes, thank you, sir.’ Forgetting that I no longer had any need to call him ‘sir.’” (197). (See on trial.)

The early parts of the chronicle are deceptively light-hearted, but the narrative later shifts vertiginously under the pressure of the narrator’s descent into insanity. In the condemned cells, which he shares with another prisoner waiting to be either reprieved or hanged, the two convicts engage in casual banter with the warders: “Of course, Stoffels and I affected unconcern, there in the condemned cell. We spent much of our waking hours in pulling the warders’ legs. We didn’t know, then, that we were in actual fact engaged in a time-honoured prison pastime” (53). The account of Stoffels’s execution (61–62), recorded in icy detail, is one of the most moving passages of the entire text, and could serve as a highly persuasive anti-death-penalty tract.

The dull, brutal reality of prison life is never far below the surface. The narrator recalls his ironic envy at a hard-labour convict’s beating by a warder: “For no warder would dream of hitting a condemned man with a baton. To a warder a condemned man was something already dead” (53). A similar sense of unreality pervades the closing passages of the text, when the narrator becomes a ‘non-person’ after his release is suspended owing to a bureaucratic oversight: “Here was I, in the prison, a human being, of flesh and air and bone; I existed here, in the prison, as a physical reality. At least, that was what I had always believed [… .] What was really me were a lot of papers, dog-eared and yellowed with the years, lying between two cardboard covers and tied up with green string, in a filing cabinet at head office” (196).

For those attuned to HCB’s distinctive brand of wry, ironic humour, typified by Schalk Lourens’s throw-away lines, Cold Stone Jug yields some special moments: “Every man in the first offenders’ section I spoke to was innocent. And he would explain his innocence to me in such detail, and his countenance, as he spoke, would be lit up with so pure a radiance, so noble a refulgence, that I believed him implicitly, and I felt very sorry for him, and I wondered how he could bring himself, from the noble elevation of his guiltlessness, to hold converse with so sorry a worm as myself” (102).

Also of interest are the prison stories, which constitute an entire subgenre in Cold Stone Jug. The circular pointlessness of the yarns inevitably shows up the circularity and pointlessness of the prisoners’ lives. They are invariably disrupted by the resumption of prison routine and leave a weird, disembodied impression in their wake. On one occasion the narrator reports a story told to him by one ‘bluecoat’ (habitual criminal) about a safe-blowing that goes horribly awry when the dynamite the gang members use explodes in their faces. Typically, this storytelling session is terminated when exercise period ends. The narrator remarks: “The whole story ended just like that, in mid-air [… .] But I knew I could go back to him any time, and he would continue with that story from the point where he had left off, if I had asked him to. Or else he would have told me a brand new story, starting just from anywhere and ending up nowhere – exactly like his own life was” (69).

In tone Cold Stone Jug shifts from the jocular and sardonic to the anguished, desperate cry of a young man already half over the edge of insanity and hanging perilously on the precipice. This gives the chronicle its unique, haunting power, and enables Cold Stone Jug to transcend its more awkward moments, where the flat prose style threatens to trivialise what was clearly a most brutal and degrading experience. A further significance of Cold Stone Jug is its role as a pioneering work in the corpus of ‘prison literature’ – sadly, a genre that became well established in SA.

Pretoria Central Prison, showing the door through which HCB would have stepped upon his release in 1930 (Craig MacKenzie)

Collected Works of Herman Charles Bosman, The (1981 & 1988) A gathering of all of the published volumes by HCB at the time, initially in two hardback volumes in a slipcase (1981), and then in one hardback volume (1988), with a preface by Lionel Abrahams. It contains Mafeking Road, Unto Dust, Jacaranda in the Night, Willemsdorp, The Earth is Waiting, poems from The Blue Princess, poems from Mara, Cold Stone Jug, A Bekkersdal Marathon, Jurie Steyn’s Post Office, Selected Stories, and A Cask of Jerepigo. The Anniversary Edition was to see this collection of HCB’s work added to by at least a quarter, with many texts restored after intentional and unintentional meddling.

Colley, Major-General Sir George Pomeroy See Majuba Hill.

coloured See Cape Coloured.

Combrinck (no first name) Nervous leader of a commando, parallel to OSL’s, sent to flush Sijefu’s warriors from the thick bush; died at Dalmanutha during the Second Anglo-Boer War (UD: 109 “Funeral Earth”).

Combrinck, Hans Farmer who objects to drinking too early in the day (OTS: 64 “New Elder”).

comet Possibly Halley’s Comet, which appeared in 1910; used as substitute for or allusion to the Star of Bethlehem (S&H: 113 “Cometh Comet”).

“Cometh Comet” (S&H: 111) A comet brings great relief to farmers driven to desperation by drought. HCB at the height of his powers; not a word out of place in this beautiful nativity story. “It seemed that the further a tribe of kaffirs lived away from civilisation, the more detailed and dependable was the information they had about the comet.”

commando(s) (Afr. ‘kommando’) Mounted military unit(s), member(s) of mounted military unit. Formed during the early colonial years in SA in response to attacks by indigenous peoples, and cattle theft. Thereafter became a core aspect of Voortrekker life, and featured prominently during the two Anglo–Boer Wars. Because of their military prowess, the term was used later in the twentieth century to refer to crack troops in the military who usually operate in small, specially trained bands (OTS: 45 “A Boer Rip van Winkel”).

comp Abbreviated form for ‘compositor’; artisan who composited and set the type with which newspapers were printed (CJ: 163 “Street Processions”).

comping Abbreviation of ‘compositing’; setting the type by hand (CSJ: 64).

Complete Oom Schalk Lourens Stories, The (2006) A collection of all 60 OSL stories, together with the illustrations that originally accompanied the first publication of the stories in the 1930s and 40s, edited by Craig MacKenzie. The sequence is divided into three groupings: early stories (1930–31); those he wrote in London (1934–37); and those he wrote upon his return to SA in 1940 until his death in 1951.

Complete Voorkamer Stories, The (2011) A collection of all 79 Voorkamer stories, edited by Craig MacKenzie, with photographs by David Goldblatt. Half of the pieces first appeared in Lionel Abrahams’s two collections Jurie Steyn’s Post Office (1971) and A Bekkersdal Marathon (1971). The entire set was then re-edited by Craig MacKenzie and appeared as Idle Talk (1999) and Homecoming (2005), both of which are part of the Anniversary Edition.

concertina A small sausage-shaped instrument with free reeds and a bellows; when air is forced through the reeds musical notes are produced and a tune is played by pressing buttons situated on either side of the instrument; ironically, the type of concertina favoured by boeremusiek proponents is known as the English concertina, as it was produced by the English Wheatstone company (MR: 44 “The Music Maker”).

“Concertinas and Confetti” (S&H: 66) A cunning bully’s life changes for the better when he marries a loving woman. A wistful story of love and how past habits predict future behaviour. “And it seemed sad that life could not always be like that. It seemed a pity that life was not satisfied to let us always bear on our shoulders things only as light as confetti.”

Constable, Robert E. Bemused Pretoria-based Union Party candidate for the Willemsdorp seat in a provincial council by-election (W: 18).

consumption Archaic word for tuberculosis (TB); although there is a long list of composers and artists who died of TB, the most famous and tragic is Frederic Chopin, and it is he who is probably the hero Manie Kruger modelled himself on (MR: 45 “The Music Maker”).

contretemps (Fr.) Lit. ‘motion out of time’; an unexpected mishap or unfortunate event (W: 58).

contumely Scorn (CSJ: 105).

Cook’s agent An agent representing the Thomas Cook travel agency (VS: 150 “South African Literature”).

coolie-woman Derogatory term for an Indian woman (CSJ: 69).

Cooper’s dip Powdered fungicide and insecticide developed by Richard Powell Cooper circa 1852 for treating common sheep diseases (UD: 62 “Susannah and the Play-actor”; IT: 69 “White Ant”).

Cope, J(ohn). P. Editor of The Forum at the time (March 1950) that HCB floated the ‘Voorkamer’ idea. Cope responded thus to the samples HCB sent: “Thank you very much for the sketches you submitted, which I think are excellent, and we could very well make a beginning with them” (letter dated 31 March 1950); came up with the rubric “In die Voorkamer”.

Cordier, Lena Slim, brunette ex-teacher, and editor of the women’s page of the Northern Transvaal News when Charlie Hendricks is appointed; she is involved with Jack Brummer, but also flirts with Charlie, and attracts the attention of Cyril Stein (W: 16).

Cordier, Lettie Daughter of Krisjan Cordier, who “[w]ith her brown arms and her sweet, quiet face and her full bosom […] was a very pretty picture”; the object of Gideon van der Merwe’s affection (MR: 60 “The Love Potion”).

corpus delicti (Lat.) Lit. ‘body of crime’ (evidence); legal term indicating that it must be proven that a crime has been committed in order to prove guilt (L&O: 137 “The Old Magistrates’ Court”).

Correspondence

“Letter to A. J. Blignaut” 31 January 1940 (L&O: 100) HCB arrives back in Johannesburg after leaving Britain and expresses regret at having missed Blignaut, who had already left for Britain.

“Letter to Miss Adele Lezard” 15 June 1951 (L&O: 200) HCB conveying thanks to Lezard (of Dassie Books) regarding the arrangements for republishing Mafeking Road in the Dassie edition.

“Letter to Alan Paton” undated, c. 1949 (L&O: 199) HCB thanking Paton for the latter’s positive remarks about Mafeking Road in The New York Times Book Review.

“Letter to Basson en Grobler” 11 June 1926 (L&O: 47) During his stint as a teacher in Zwingli; HCB requesting (in poor Afrikaans) a bicycle from this dealer in Zeerust; letter never posted.

Letter to F. D. Sinclair, Esq.” 13 July 1950 (L&O: 200) HCB requesting submission of poetry for planned anthology of new SA verse (never completed).

“Letter to Lionel Abrahams” 24 May 1947 (L&O: 197) Long letter from HCB (then resident in Cape Town) commenting on Abrahams’s story “Down upon the Green Grass”.

“Letter to Margaret L. Macpherson” 23 August 1951 (L&O: 201) HCB writing to the New York-based literary agent about completing Willemsdorp and posting it to her as soon as he had done so.

“Letter to Mr & Mrs Sachs” 12 January 1943 (L&O: 104) HCB thanks Bernard and Dolly Sachs for their hospitality to Helena, Ella and him during their visit to Johannesburg from Pietersburg.

“Letter to Roy Campbell” undated, c. April 1949 (L&O: 198) Very revealing letter from HCB commenting on the “mutilated form” in which his stories were published in the first edition of Mafeking Road (1947), and pleading with Campbell to find him an English publisher (nothing comes of this).

cortège Funeral procession following the hearse (CSJ: 121).

corundum Very hard mineral that is used as an abrasive in sandpaper and emery wheels (OTS: 77 “The Murderess”).

costermonger A street vendor of fruit and vegetables (CJ: 90 “Class Snobbery in Britain”).

Count of Monte Cristo, The A novel by Alexandre Dumas about the nobleman Edmond Dantès’s wrongful imprisonment, escape, and revenge on those who betrayed him (CSJ: 73).

Cowle, William Alfred Plumber and first husband of Daisy de Melker (L&O: 79 “Daisy de Melker”).

cream laid, 48 and 60 Creamy, coloured paper that shows textured parallel wire marks, due to its manufacture in which the wires are laid side by side; the number refers to the thickness of the paper (CSJ: 64).

“Credo” (VS: 175) Thoughts on the place and role of Afrikaans and especially Afrikaans poetry. Apart from its opening line, “Ek neem my staanplek in op die bodem van Afrika”, nothing new is added to what HCB has said on these matters in various other articles.

Cresswell, F. H. P. (Frederick), Colonel (1866–1948) Born in Gibraltar, he came to SA in 1893 to work as a mining engineer. Served on the side of the British forces in the Second Anglo–Boer War; founding member of the South African Labour Party; became Minister of Defence in the Pact Government under General Hertzog (L&O: 34 “Home Town”).

“Cricket and How to Play it” (YB: 82) By his own admission HCB was not a sports fan; here he pokes fun at the inherent silliness of cricket.

Cripps, Sergeant ‘Kind-hearted’ Gruff policeman with a heart of gold; arrests Pringle for drunken and disorderly behaviour then lets him go (YB: 174 “Johannesburg Christmas Eve”).

Cronjé, Faan Farmer near the Molopo Drift; relative of Gert Bekker (S&H: 99 “The Ghost at the Drift”).

Cronjé, General Piet (Pieter Arnoldus) (1836–1911) Senior Boer general who saw action in both the First and Second Anglo–Boer Wars. He was in command of the troops who rounded up Jameson (see Jameson Raid), began the sieges of Kimberley and Mafeking, and was heavily defeated at the Battle of Paardeberg in February 1900, where he was forced to surrender with a company of 4 000 men, an event that badly damaged the morale of the Boer forces. His preferential treatment as a POW (his wife and daughters went to St Helena with him) has led to accusations that he struck a deal with the British; rumours that he is an ancestor of Hansie Cronjé, the late disgraced captain of the SA cricket team, are unfounded (MR: 47 “The Music Maker”; OTS: 47 “A Boer Rip van Winkel”).

cropper Cutting or trimming machine (CSJ: 104).

Cross, Wilfrid (L. W.) Trained as a civil engineer and architectural draughtsman, but moved into the world of commercial art and broadcasting; worked chiefly for The Rand Daily Mail and later for The Forum. He and HCB both contributed to The Forum in the 1940s. He is the most prolific illustrator of HCB’s OSL stories, contributing a dozen artworks to The South African Opinion between 1935 and 1945. His iconic, cubist-influenced, image of two men sitting around a camp-fire in the veld (for “Starlight on the Veld”, The South African Opinion, January 1946) featured on the dust jacket of the first edition of Mafeking Road in 1947.

Cross’s illustration for “Starlight on the Veld”

cyclamen Probably Cyclamen africanum, perennial flower, not indigenous to the Marico (L&O: 51 “A Teacher in the Bushveld”).

Cymriese Cymric or Welsh (VS: 171 “Die Duistere Vers”).