THE BOER OF TO-DAY. 327 



or otherwise employed, the lady will slaughter and 

 cut up a sheep or goat with her own hands, and a 

 capital business she makes of it ; indeed, with some 

 of these simple pastoral people, butchering appears 

 to have a great attraction among the fair sex. It is 

 not a pleasant trait, but a really useful one. 



The morning ablutions are very scanty. A 

 Hottentot appears with a basin of minute 

 dimensions, containing, perhaps, a pint or so of 

 water, and a small and often dirty towel. The 

 father dips his fingers in the water, gives his eyes 

 and a small portion of his face a slight rub, dries 

 himself on the towel, and the trick is done. Then 

 the process is repeated by the rest of the family, all 

 using the same water and the same towel. I have 

 watched this proceeding with extreme curiosity, 

 tempered with some little disgust, in several Boer 

 establishments, and I am given to understand that 

 no other ablutions whatever are thought requisite, 

 year in, year out — save, of course, the evening 

 custom I have above referred to. But then water 

 is often a very scarce luxury in South Africa, and 

 the Dutch Afrikander is at least 200 years behind 

 the times. Our own grandfathers troubled the 

 washstand very little, if we may judge from the 

 size of basins of a hundred years ago^ Prayers 

 are never forgotten, and are conducted with the 

 most solemn ceremony. The father reads a chapter 

 from the great family clasp-bible, which has often 

 been in the family a hundred years or more, and 

 even sometimes ever since Van Riebeek's time 

 (1652). Then, all kneeling, prayers are offered up ; 

 the Boer prays for himself, his family, and his 

 flocks, and other earthly possessions — if in 



