1812. 
SMOKING; A UNIVERSAL CUSTOM. 
]15 
would boast of, it was an agreeable relief from the monotony of a 
conversation on agricultural subjects, the only topics which generally 
are to be expected at such farm-houses. He exhibited some small 
drawings which, he told me, were done entirely with the juice of 
the petals of a species of oxalis producing a blue color, of the tint 
of indigo. He had very ingeniously made pencils from the hair of 
the springbuck ; and as far as my present stock of drawing materials 
would permit, I was glad at being able to supply his wants, by furnish- 
ing him with a few camels-hair pencils and a piece of China-ink. 
With these he employed himself in the evening in making a copy 
of my drawing of the rhinoceros. His powers in penmanship were 
not despicable ; and as a proof of steadiness of hand and of good 
sight, he gave me a piece of paper on which, by the naked eye, he 
had written the ' Lord s Prayer' twice in a circular space of less than 
seven tenths of an inch in diameter. 
At night T sat down with the family to a hot supper of mutton ; 
to which were added, a salad of cucumbers, and a large bowl of 
milk : this last being usually the concluding dish at a boor's supper. 
The description, in the former volume, of Peter Jacobs's dwel- 
ling and of his whole establishment, will convey a tolerably just idea 
of the place. The rooms in the principal house being but three (that 
is, one in the middle in which the family sit and take their meals, 
and one bed-room at each end) a visitor could not be accommodated 
with a chamber to himself A bed was therefore prepared for me, 
in the same apartment with the meester and his three scholars. 
This tutor was in every respect, qualified for finishing their 
education, and for completing them for Dutch farmers ; for a man 
who does uot smoke, is a rare phenomenon in this colony, and is 
generally looked upon by the boors as an imperfect creature; a dis- 
advantage which I myself laboured under, but which, for want of 
any natural talent for this accomplishment, I was never able to over- 
come. I might perhaps have partly retrieved my character in their 
estimation, could I even have shown them that I enjoyed it in taste ; 
or even in smell, by exhibiting both nostrils blackened, and herme- 
tically closed, with that elegant and fashionable dirt, called in 
Q 2 
