40 ON AN EAST AFRICAN RANCH [ch. ii 



shaped, and filled with plaited raw hide, were so attrac- 

 tive that I ordered one to take home. There were 

 neatly kept little flower-gardens, suffering much from 

 the drought ; there were ovens and out - buildings ; 

 cattle-sheds for the humped oxen and the herds of 

 pretty cows and calves ; the biltong was drying in 

 smoke-houses ; there were patches of ground in cultiva- 

 tion, for corn and vegetables ; and the wild veldt came 

 up to the door-sills, and the wild game grazed quietly 

 on all sides within sight of the houses. It was a very 

 good kind of pioneer life ; and there could be no better 

 pioneer settlers than Boers such as I saw. 



The older men wore full beards, and were spare and 

 sinewy. The young men were generally smooth-faced 

 or moustached, strongly built, and rather shy. The 

 elder women were stout, cordial, motherly housewives ; 

 the younger were often really pretty. At their houses 

 I was received with hearty hospitality, and given cofiee 

 or fresh milk, while we conversed through the medium 

 of the sons or daughters, who knew a little English. 

 They all knew that I was of Dutch origin, and were 

 much interested when I repeated to them the only 

 Dutch I knew, a nursery song which, as I told them, 

 had been handed down to me by my own forefathers, 

 and which in return I had repeated so many, many 

 times to my children when they were little. It runs as 

 follows, by the way ; but I have no idea how the words 

 are spelled, as I have no written copy ; it is supposed 

 to be sung by the father, who holds the little boy or 

 little girl on his knee, and tosses him or her up in the 

 air when he comes to the last line : 



" Trippa, troppa, tronjes, 

 De varken's in de booiijes, 

 De koejes in de klaver, 

 De paardeen in de haver, 



