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meet with a person who goes by the title of schoohnaster ; 

 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. \ 



" 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 sheen 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 a 

 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 a witness 

 to the 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. 



" Another object that often strikes the eye of the traveller 

 approaching a farm-house, is a long pole fixed in the 

 ground, with a flat board on the top, and a baboon exhibit- 

 ing his antics on it. Jacko is a great favourite with the 

 boors, and deservedly so. In the course of his domestica- 



