OUR SERVANTS. 201 



either men or women servants know that you are 

 pleased* with them, or they will invariably presume. 



It seems a hard thing to say, but it does not do to be 

 too patient and indulgent ; excessive leniency only 

 spoils them, just as it does the Hindoo servants. One 

 of our relatives, a kind and gentle chaplain in India, 

 finding that he was worse waited on than any of his 

 neighbours, and asking his head servant one day why 

 the latter and all his subordinates worked so badly, paid 

 so little attention to orders, etc., received the following 

 candid answer from- the man : " Why not sahib give 

 plenty stick, and mem-sahib call plenty pig ? Then 

 we good servants." 



A Boer gets much more work out of the natives than 

 an Englishman. The latter is at one time too severe, 

 and at another too lenient ; but the Boer's treatment is 

 uniformly just and firm. Perhaps the expression, " like 

 a Dutch uncle," may have originated in the Cape 

 Colony. 



The Zulus and Kaffirs are by nature fine, generous 

 characters, comparatively free from dishonesty and 

 untruthfulness ; though unfortunately they too soon 

 acquire both these vices, as well as numerous others, 

 when they come in contact with civilization, which in 

 their case certainly seems, as Bret Harte has it, "a 

 failure." On the Diamond Fields the best servants are 

 invariably those who are taken fresh from their kraals ; 

 even the fact of their knowing a few words of English 

 being found a disadvantage. 



A Zulu is always somewhat of a gentleman, and 



