THE TRANSVAAL. igi 



some years. The law was in none of them used 

 as a deterrent agent ; stranger still, the guilty 

 parties forfeited no social standing as a conse- 

 quence of their universally admitted guilt although 

 illicit connection with coloured females entails a 

 sentence of the severest form of ostracism. So 

 much for the prevalent habit of the almost 

 universal customs of straining at gnats and 

 swallowing camels as easily as oysters. Obviously 

 I am compelled to omit mentioning the names of 

 all these criminals, but am not precluded from 

 indicating their personalities. Sad to say, perhaps 

 the worst offender was a rich old Boer of pious 

 proclivities, inasmuch as at his homestead church 

 services were usually performed once a quarter, 

 and that he was an elder of the congregation. 

 Another of those to whom I allude was a field- 

 cornet in Government service ; and the third 

 implicated was, I must admit, considered 

 a loose character all round, and was only 

 just tolerated by his neighbours, but the 

 objection to his society was consequent on 

 rowdyism, not on the guilt incurred by 

 the commission of the crime I name. I have 

 no reason to think that these practices were at 



