86 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



her a good deal. Occasionally, too, Sally goes on 

 strike, that is, an unconquerably lazy fit comes 

 over her ; she absolutely refuses to work, and will lie 

 underneath a bush at the back of the house for the 

 whole day slumbering in the sun. I suppose these 

 fits are but the natural outcome of centuries of a 

 savage existence; but they are very trying to the 

 mistress, especially when she knows that if she 

 dismisses the recalcitrant "slavey," she cannot 

 obtain a better substitute, and may probably fare far 

 worse by the change. In South African establish- 

 ments, I am afraid it must be owned that the old 

 Boer methods of strong and frequent corporal 

 punishment are the only ones of much avail. It is 

 certain that the Dutch are far better served by their 

 native servants than are the British. On Saturday 

 Sally is allowed " her afternoon out," and proceeding 

 to the bosom of her kraal, returns next morning not 

 by any means improved. 



John, the Kaffir groom, and the native herds, 

 sleep in some outhouses in the rear. Jackson, an 

 English mason and handy-man, at present engaged 

 completing the building of some stables, has a com- 

 fortable shake-down in the building he is erecting. 

 One other person completes the establishment, 

 though he is, like Jackson, only a temporary hand ; 

 this is a Basuto, who is building stone kraals for the 

 flocks hitherto principally folded for the night in 

 thorn enclosures cut from the Acacia horrida. This 

 Basuto is the merriest, most good-tempered, light- 

 hearted, steadily-working soul that ever owned a black 

 skin. He is, like all the Basutos, and many of the 

 Bechuanas, wonderfully skilled at his work ; and his 

 kraals, albeit they are built of the loose stones he 



