THE BOER OF TO-DAY. 325 



quantities of coffee are also consumed, and, strangely 

 enough, sweets are a favourite luxury among the 

 Boers. The Bible is the only book that is generally 

 read, and twice a year at least the family trek into 

 the nearest town to partake of the Nacht-maal or 

 Sacrament. The Boer never changes his clothes 

 for his night's rest, and his ablutions are scanty 

 enough ; but these habits have descended to him 

 from his forefathers, who, from the manifold dangers 

 and night alarms of the wilderness, were formerly 

 compelled to sleep in their clothes, so as to be able 

 to go out at a moment's notice when danger 

 threatened their flocks or themselves. 



In the Western province, the oldest of the Dutch 

 settlements, some few refinements are creeping into 

 the dwelling-houses. Some of the daughters may 

 have been educated at the ladies' schools now 

 established in various parts of the Colony, and the 

 notes of a harmonium, or even a piano, may now be 

 occasionally heard in a few of the better houses. 

 But with the Boers progress is so slow, and their 

 hatred of innovations so rooted, that many years 

 may elapse before even the simplest refinements of 

 civilisation acquire much foothold. 



The vrouw occupies an important position in 

 every Dutch household, as, indeed, she ought. In 

 the stirring history of the Boers in South Africa, the 

 womenfolk have ever borne their share, and more 

 than their share of the work, rousing their phlegmatic 

 spouses at need by sharp and scathing words, and 

 in time of battle often assisting to repel the attacks 

 of savage foes, loading the emptied rifles of their 

 men-kind, and, upon occasion, even using them 

 themselves. If the secret history of the Transvaal 



