276 
meet with a person who goes by the title of schoolmaster; 
but the acquirements of these pedagogues are rarely such 
as prove of much benefit to their pupils. Originally 
deserters, or discharged from military service in Capetown, 
these vagrants stroll about the country, and impose them- 
selves on the ignorance and credulity of the peasantry, as 
fully qualified to instruct their children. i 
* In this country, distance is computed by hours instead 
of miles. If you ask how far one place is from another, 
they will answer, so many hours on horseback, or, so 
many with a waggon. The hour on horseback is reckoned 
equal to`six miles; with the waggon, to half that number. 
Even the boundaries of their farms are fixed in this com- 
pendious manner, being an hour's walk in every direction. - 
* Adjacent to every farm-house, there are two areas 
fenced in with Mimosa bushes, laid in the manner of abattis. 
One of these, termed the * Beast Kraal,’ is appropriated for 
the black cattle; and here the cows are milked before they 
go out to feed in the morning, and after they return home 
for the night. 'The other receives the sheep and the goats. 
It has been adduced as a proof of extreme indolence in the 
boors, that they never remove the dung from the kraals to 
manure their arable ground, but suffer it to accumulate 
until it overtops the fence, and obliges them to enclose $ 
fresh spot. It would be more correct, perhaps, to ascribe 
it to the natural fertility of the soil, and the want of a ready 
market for its produce, The detriment to the cattle, from 
this slovenly at least, if not improvident, piece of economy 
turns out,. at times, rather serious. I was myself witness 
tothe loss of thirty sheep in one small kraal in the course 
of a rainy night. The bottom on which they stood had 
become so soft, that they sunk in it up to the belly, and 
were literally smothered in their own dung. Agee 
.* Another object that often strikes the eye of the traveller 
approaching a farm-house, is a long pole fixed in t 
ground, with a flat board on the top, and a baboon exhibit- 
Ing his antics on it. Jacko is a great favourite with 
boors, and deservedly so.: In the course of his domestici" 
