OUR NEIGHBOURS. 273 



The nachtmaal,ov communion, is only administered — 

 as among Scotch Presbyterians — twice or three times 

 during the year ; and on these rare occasions the li'ttle 

 town or village where there is a Dutch church becomes 

 the lively scene of an immense gathering of Boers, 

 vrouws, and families. They have come, many of them 

 from long distances of three or four days' journey, plod- 

 ding along in waggons drawn by long spans of oxen, 

 driving in roomy conveyances of every possible queer 

 and antiquated shape, or travelling on horseback — 

 the stout, ungainly women, in their white Jcappjes and 

 gaudily-coloured dresses, cantering clumsily by the 

 side of their lords. The crowd of outspanned vehicles, 

 drawn up close together, form a kind of large camp . 

 and, the Boer being always ready to combine piety with 

 business — and, if need be, with a good deal of cheating. 

 — the nachtmaal ends with a busy fair or market, 

 in which a very brisk trade is carried on, all kinds of 

 farm produce being sold or bartered. 



In nearly all the Dutch houses you find curious old 

 family Bibles, many of them in black-letter, with 

 quaint and interesting maps. In some of the latter, 

 representing Africa, the lakes Victoria and Albert 

 Nyanza are marked, though quite in the wrong places. 

 The good old French names borne by so many of the 

 Boers tell of their Huguenot descent ; Du Plessis, De 

 Villiers, Du Toit, Du Barry, etc., are all names of fre- 

 quent occurrence in South Africa, although the French 

 language is never spoken, the Dutch having prohibited 

 its use among the refugees when the latter settled in 



