'I'll talk to them, Excellency,' he said in German.

'You are too academic for those outland swine.' He began in the taal, with the thick guttural accent that you get in German South West.

'You have heard of me,' he said.

'I am the Colonel von Stumm who fought the Hereros.' Peter pricked up his ears.

'_Ja_, Baas, you cut off the chief Baviaan's head and sent it in pickle about the country.