Il6 SOUTH AFRICA. 



Colony, or even among the " serious " populations 

 in and around the more Anglicised East Province. 

 Living, as I have done for the past three years, 

 in a village in the Western Province of the old 

 Colony, I can safely say that outside my own little 

 household I have never heard a pleasant rippling 

 laugh ; and I suspect any attempt in such decried 

 art would impose not only a painful physical strain 

 on the rigid facial muscles of the ordinary Africander 

 but probably subject him to the censure of the 

 Church, which he may possibly love, but most 

 certainly abjectly fears. Cricket, football, races, 

 and athletics are enjoyed in Natal ; in the old 

 Colony they are simply and gravely performed 

 not without skill, but entirely destitute of zest. 

 Irrespective of mere years, Natalians are mostly 

 young ; Cape Colonists are generally aged. Such, 

 at least, were my impressions formed during a 

 residence of some duration in Natal some years 

 ago, but I hear that gloomy moral clouds so 

 strikingly at variance with the bright physical 

 atmosphere of South Africa now to a great extent 

 overshadow the town populations, and that the 

 envy, hatred, and malice so characteristic of the 

 " unco guid " communities are gradually ousting 



