14 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



very firmly and solidly plaited, and tapering to a point ; 

 they are made to fit the head by means of a small 

 crown fixed inside, very like that of a college cap. 



The Malay women, instead of gliding about veiled to 

 the eyes, like their Mohammedan sisters in other parts 

 of the world, wear the quaint costume which was the 

 fashion among the Dutch women at the time when the 

 Malay race first came as slaves to the Cape. The waist 

 of the dress is extremely short ; and the long and 

 voluminous skirts, of which an infinite number seem to 

 be worn, commence close under the arms, spreading out, 

 stifiiy starched and spotlessly clean, to dimensions 

 rivalling those of the old hooped petticoats. The good- 

 natured brown faces are most unbecomingly framed by 

 bright-coloured silk handkerchiefs tightly bound under 

 the chin, somewhat after the fashion of the Algerian 

 Jewesses — giving the wearers an appearance of per- 

 petual toothache. Many of the women wear noisy 

 wooden clogs ; kept from parting company with the 

 bare feet by nothing but a kind of large button, 

 curiously ornamented, projecting between the two first 

 toes. 



In the early days of slavery, when the Malays were 

 brought up in the Dutch families, nearly all were 

 Christians ; and even so recentl}^ as when Sir Bartle 

 Frere was governor there were comparatively few 

 amonof them who could read the Koran. Durinor the 

 last few years, however, Mohammedanism has been 

 rapidly gaining ground everywhere — the great uni- 

 versity of El Azhar in Cairo, especially, training thou- 



