55 



for the use of his own family, and for which he refused a 

 thousand Rix-dollars. 



" In the boor's house, the best apartment is always reserved 

 for strangers. It is usually furnished with more than one 

 bed, and will accommodate a pretty numerous party, pro- 

 vided they conform to the country fashion of tui*ning in, two 

 or three together. With the ample materials they possess, 

 it would be desirable that the colonial system of cookery 

 were a little more varied. It never passes the limits of 

 stewed and boiled. Of the art of roasting they have no con- 

 ception ; and the beaf-steak and mutton-chop are known only 

 on the outskirts of the colony, where they are broiled by the 

 yard, after the primitive manner of the Hottentots. They 

 have a variety of vegetables for the table, but appear to set 

 no great value on them, owing, perhaps, to the superior 

 excellence of their bread. There is, however, one vegetable 

 which you never miss; that is cucumber, garnished with 

 slices of onion, and floating in a sauce compounded of oil, 

 vinegar, and pepper, poured on boiling hot. 



" Each cover is furnished with a white napkin ; but the 

 duty of its office is executed by a deputy, the Vaatdock^ (dish- 

 clout,) which circulates from hand to hand, and from mouth 

 to mouth, while the other is kept carefully folded up, to be 

 paraded again at next meal. The carving-knife and fork have 

 not yet penetrated beyond the isthmus ; nor is the table fur- 

 nished with supernumeraries even of the common sort. Every 

 person takes his own knife and fork to carve what stands 

 before him ; the dish is then sent round, and each sticks his 

 fork into a portion of it as it passes. Strangers of morbid 

 delicacy will do well on these occasions to help themselves to 

 all they require when the dish makes its first round, as 

 the boor is not very particular in the uses to which he puts 

 his fork during the repast. 



" The character of the African peasantry has been a 

 favourite theme of vituperation to several travellers who 

 have treated of this colony. One really cannot peruse, 

 without feelings of disgust, the pictures of sloth, ignor- 

 ance, vulgarity, and cruelty, which have been drawn. 



