90 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. 



February 27th, or Majuba day, is rightly remembered 

 by Boers as a general holiday. Englishmen can accept 

 a defeat, but need not necessarily celebrate its anniver- 

 sary, and with my nephew and man, who had accom- 

 panied me from England, I started on the previous even- 

 ing for the small quantity of " wood-bush " that may be 

 found in the Pretoria district on the Waterberg Road. 

 An old colonist, who had reached Natal as .a child, and 

 wandered about South Africa ever since, often deserted 

 but never quite forsaken by fortune, who seemed to 

 have never failed and never prospered, and who, with- 

 out any great financial reputation, was content in dis- 

 position and seemed independent in character, invited 

 us to spend the night at a small farm he rented in the 

 neighbourhood. We reached the abode late, for the 

 way was long, the roads heavy, and the night dark, and 

 here in this small domicile on the vast veld, dwelling 

 in all the plainness of the most primitive farm at home, 

 was a colonist family who only just preserved in the 

 parents' early life the slightest touch with home. And 

 yet it is with these good people that the distrust of the 

 Boer is most strongly felt. The wealthy colonial or 

 British merchant thrives with the Boer and respects 

 his customer, but with men of small means and plain 

 living the difference is most pronounced. The soldier 

 accepts and forgets his defeat, but these humble and 

 industrious Scotch and English, who were scattered 

 over the country with farm or store at the time of the 

 war, and went through much danger, and, what was 

 worse, had to put up with much rudeness, have, doubt- 

 less, forgiven but certainly not forgotten. Our sleeping 

 accommodation was at least primitive : a straw pail- 

 lasse stretched on the earthern floor of an empty cowshed, 

 which, nicely ventilated by holes in the walls and roof, 

 and agreeably perfumed by strings of onions suspended 

 from the rafters, afforded us, in the absence of rain, 

 excellent shelter. I was informed here of a sudden 

 cessation to a bird pest. A small Finch had swarmed 

 on the farm to the great destruction of certain crops, 

 and all attempts to destroy them or thin their numbers 



