40 



the rains came. The houses were of stone, and clean and 

 comfortable; the floors were covered with the skins of buck 

 and zebra; the chairs were home-made, as was most of the 

 other furniture; the "rust bunks,'* or couches, strongly and 

 gracefully shaped, and filled with plaited raw hide, were 

 so attractive that I ordered one to take home. There were 

 neatly kept little flower-gardens, suffering much from the 

 drought; there were ovens and out-buildings; cattle-sheds 

 for the humped oxen and the herds of pretty cows and 

 calves; the biltong was drying in smoke-houses; there 

 were patches of ground in cultivation, for corn and veg- 

 etables; and the wild velt came up to the door-sills, and 

 the wild game grazed quietly on all sides within sight of 

 the houses. It was a very good kind of pioneer life; and 

 there could be no better pioneer settlers than Boers such 

 as I saw. 



The older men wore full beards, and were spare and 

 sinewy. The young men were generally smooth-faced or 

 mustached, strongly built, and rather shy. The elder 

 women were stout, cordial, motherly housewives; the 

 younger were often really pretty. At their houses I was 

 received with hearty hospitality, and given coffee or fresh 

 milk, while we conversed through the medium of the sons 

 or daughters who knew a little English. They all knew 

 that I was of Dutch origin, and were much interested when 

 I repeated to them the only Dutch I knew, a nursery song 

 which, as I told them, had been handed down to me by my 

 own forefathers, and which in return I had repeated, so 

 many, many times, to my children when they were little. 

 It runs as follows, by the way; but I have no idea how the 

 words are spelled, as I have no written copy; it is supposed 



