A Breath from the Veldt 



32'5 



easily shot — a mistaken idea which I was shortly to correct, for in the African 

 spring, when the grass is short, there is no animal much harder to approach. 

 As the cart stopped at the house, the Lion came out of his den, and I informed 

 him that I had come to stay — a prospect which (seeing that I was an 

 Englishman) was hardly calculated to overwhelm him with joy. However, on 

 my offering to pay liberally for my keep and for the wildebeest that I wanted 

 to shoot, he presently gave in, and after 

 I had told him my name and the 

 object of my visit, he obliged me (in 

 Dutch) with something like the follow- 

 ing remarks : — 



" What will Jan Miiller make of the 

 wildebeest ? You are an Englishman ; 

 you cannot shoot wildebeest ! My son 

 will shoot one for you, from which you 

 can make prints. Where do you come 

 from ? Oh ! you've just come from 

 Mashonaland. And " (incredulously) 

 "you only came from England this year ! 

 Ah ! now I know you are a big rascal, 

 like all the English, for no man can 

 learn to speak Dutch in nine months. 

 Now / have met " Red-necks " all my 

 life, and can only say ' How-do.' Be- 

 sides, J will not learn the d — d English " 

 (this with astonishing force). "Come 

 and drink coffee." 



Oom Piet Terblans, now an old man 

 of seventy, was a typical specimen of 



the Orange Free State Dutchman ; and like most other members of his 

 nationahty, exceedingly tall and massive ; for amongst white men the Orange 

 Free State Boers are probably the tallest and sturdiest in the world. This is no 

 doubt due to the excellence of their climate, for the Boers of the Transvaal are 

 no bigger than the average Englishman ; on the other hand must be placed 

 the fact that, though immensely strong, few Boers, even when leading healthy 

 outdoor lives, maintain to the end the litheness and activity which are such a 

 marked feature in the Anglo-Saxon race. After middle age they lay on fat. 



PIET TERBLANS 

 An Orange Free State Boer. 



