no HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



whites, blacks, tails, feminas, chicken-feathers, etc., 

 according to length, colour, and quality, I enlivened 

 the monotony of his work by reading aloud. 



Sometimes the white feathers would be dirty for 

 there is nothing an ostrich likes better than sitting 

 down to cool himself in the muddiest dam he can find 

 then it was necessary to wash them, dip them into 

 strong raw starch, and shake them in the hot sun, beat- 

 ing two bundles of them together till quite dry. The 

 starch makes them look very pretty and fluffy; and 

 young ladies in England who economically wash their 

 own feathers would find it a great improvement. 

 Ostrich-feathers are quite tabooed by ladies in South 

 Africa ; they are too common, every Kaffir or Hottentot 

 wearing one in his dirty, battered hat. 



If an ostrich-feather is held upright, its beautiful 

 form graceful as the frond-like branch of the cocoa- 

 nut palm, which it somewhat resembles is at once seen 

 to be perfectly even and equal on both sides, its stem 

 dividing it exactly in the centre ; whereas the stems of 

 other feathers are all more or less on one side. The 

 ancient Egyptians, observant of this as of everything 

 in nature chose the ostrich-feather as the sacred em- 

 blem of truth and justice, setting it upon the head of 

 Thmei, goddess of truth. 



After a good rain, ostriches soon begin to make 

 nests ; the males become very savage, and their note of 

 defiance brooming, as it is called by the Dutch is 

 heard in all directions. The bird inflates his^neck in a 

 cobra-like fashion, and gives utterance to three deep 



