The major themes of this story by Herman Bosman are attitudes towards the dead, and equality in death. A Boer farmer and native enemy die side by side while fighting in a ‘Transvaal Kafir War’. When the farmer’s friends return to take his body home for a proper burial, they find that wild animals have mixed up the bones. The friends spend a lot of time trying to sort out which is which so that the dead farmer does not have to lie forever among the warrior’s bones. A yellow ‘kafir’ dog judges the result. Other themes: war, mateship, racism.
Original Text / PDF / Audio (1,750 words)
General Comments
The word “Unto” in the title is an old-fashioned English word meaning to or until. The title itself probably comes from a line in the Christian Bible that is commonly used in funeral services:
For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
or in modern English:
We come from dust, and we will return to dust.
A major theme of Unto Dust is whether death is the great equalizer that many people claim it to be. In the original story we see the line:
“There were people who talked in a high-flown way of death as the great leveller.”
This is very likely a reference to a well-known English poem, Death the Leveller by James Shirley.
no
Unfortunately, yes!