1 90 SOUTH AFRICA. 



the performance of ritualistic duties, and ignore 

 all intimacy with their disciples outside the church 

 walls, or, if they do pay an occasional visit to some 

 of the richest of them, that is the extent of their 

 extra-mural labours. A poor Boer family need 

 never fear being made the objects either of their 

 charity or condescension. 



The criminal statistics of the Transvaal may be 

 ignored as any guide to the amount of existent 

 offences against the law, but as a matter of justice 

 I feel bound to say that crimes of violence or 

 larceny are of rare occurrence among the Boers 

 (always exclusive of their dealings with the 

 natives), neither can they justly be accused of 

 drunkenness or rowdyism. 



On the other hand, it is a matter of notoriety 

 that incest prevails amongst them to an extent 

 happily unknown elsewhere. Such at least was 

 the case when I was a Transvaaler. As sub- 

 stantiating this charge, I may mention that some 

 of the last months I spent in the Transvaal were 

 passed in the district of Middelburg ; that within 

 a radius of not more than ten miles from my camp 

 three abnormally atrocious cases of the crime 

 alluded to were notorious, and had been so for 



