With the British Association in Africa. 2 1 



the bridesmaids, and marriageable girls. The amount of obole or 

 consideration given for the bride was then arranged. The bride 

 was asked if she were willing, presents were exchanged, and the 

 ceremony concluded with a dance, during which the bride had to 

 run away and be recaptured. After the dancing, etc., a number of 

 oxen were killed, cut up, roasted, and eaten with great gusto. 



At Colenso which is merely a station and a few shops, a hotel 

 and a Hindu temple, we visited the battlefield, a plain, with low 

 hills to westward on the banks of the Tugela, on which the Boers 

 were entrenched or sheltered in schances. There are still shrapnel 

 bullets and pieces of shell scattered here. The bravery of our 

 troops and the incompetence of their leader was here fully 

 recognised. The more we heard of the story of Colenso and 

 Spion Kop the more miserable and foolish it appeared. There 

 were monuments commemorating the bravery of officers and men, 

 notably one where Lieutenant Roberts fell when trying to recover 

 the guns. 



All along the railway to Ladysmith are soldiers' graves, 

 sometimes two or three, sometimes scores, marked with crosses, and 

 protected with white palings. Those graves are kept in order by 

 the Loyal Women's League of South Africa. 



Ladysmith is said to be unhealthy since the war, owing to the 

 germs of enteric fever left in the water, and is chiefly interesting 

 on account of the mementoes of the siege. The tower of the 

 Town Hall is preserved as it was left by a shell. The forts on 

 the river bank still remain. 



Speaking of the war leads to questions of policy, and it might be 

 expected that one should have formed accurate impressions of the 

 political views of the colonists. South Africa, as you probably 

 know, has always shared with Ireland the role of scapegoat for 

 the party Government of England. In South Africa the disastrous 

 effects of the vacillation caused by this silliest of plans of ruling 

 an empire became prominent. Distance is said to lend enchant- 

 ment to the view — not, however, of the view by a colony of party 

 government at headquarters. Chiefly on account of this uncertainty 



