In Johannesburg Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #47)

marry and have children. I remembered many of the stories Banabakhe had told us in the circumcision school about Johannesburg the tall buildings, countless crowds that spoke several tongues, many motor cars, rickshaws and ferocious gangsters. But the old lady was less worried about me than by Justice. Apparently she had never before seen a darkie who had no inhibitions whatsoever in the presence of a white person, and who could speak and joke so freely. She became nervous and to make sure that everything was under control she asked us to change places so that I sat behind her and Justice took my seat. In the meantime tho old lady half turned in the front seat with her eyes trained on Justice. She sat in this position for quite some time and the slightest movement from him made her alert. But she gradually relaxed and even joked as we went on. At about ten o'clock in the night an unforgetable scene unfolded before our eyes. We saw spranking at a distance a maze of glittering lights which seemed to stretch out endlessly in all directions. Although it was at night the traffic was far heavier than anything I had seen before. We knew we had reached Johannesburg. Later our movements were controlled by traffic lights, now we passed tall buildings and saw the attractive advertisements of the country's leading industrial city; now we were amongst huge and beautiful mansions. Finally the car turned into one of these and that ended the journey for the day. The following morning we met Pilisco, the chief Induna (headman) at Crown Mines. He told us