OUR LITTLE HOME.
Building operations--A plucking--Ugliness of Cape houses--Our
rooms--Fountain in sitting-room a failure--Drowned pets--Decoration of
rooms--Colonist must be Jack-of-all-trades--Cape waggons--Shooting
expeditions--Strange tale told by Boer.
On our first arrival in the Karroo we were unable to take up our abode
at once on our own farm; the best of the three small Dutch houses on it
being little better than a hut, and consisting but of two small and
badly-built rooms; with mud floors and smoke-blackened reed ceilings,
as far removed from the horizontal as the roughly-plastered walls,
which bulged and retreated in all unexpected directions, were from the
perpendicular--the whole architecture, if so pretentious a term may be
used, being entirely innocent of any approach to a straight line or
correct angle. We at once commenced building operations; in the
meanwhile renting a little house which happened to be vacant on the
next farm, about an hour's rough, but pretty ride from our own. Now
came a busy time for T----, and for his manager--the latter already
installed, uncomfortably enough, in the old Dutch house--for besides
the brick-making and building, and the deepening of the well near the
house, there was, as must always be the case on starting a new farm,
much to be done, and everything required to be done at once. T----
spent most of his time at "Swaylands," as we named our farm; and very
enjoyable for me were the days when I could spare a few hours from
household duties to ride over with him, to watch the progress of the
new rooms, or to be initiated into some of the mysteries of
ostrich-farming, all delightfully new and strange to me.
The first sight of a plucking interested me especially; and it was not
without a proud feeling of ownership that I sat on the ground in one
corner of the kraal, or small temporary enclosure, helping to tie up in
neat bundles our own first crop of soft, white, black, or grey feathers
while watching the busy scene. It all comes back to me now with the
clearness of a photograph--the bright, cloudless, metallic-looking
South African sky above us; and for a background the long range of
rocky mountains, each stain on their rugged sides, each aloe or
_spekboom_ plant growing on them, sharply defined in that clear
atmosphere as if seen through the large end of an opera-glass. In the
foreground a forest of long necks, and a crowd of foolish, frightened
faces, gaping beaks, and throats all puffed out with air--the latter
ludicrous grimace, accompanied sometimes by a short, hollow sound, half
grunt, half cough, being the ostrich's mode of expressing deepest
disgust and dejection. There is a constant heavy stamping of powerful
two-toed feet; an occasional difference of opinion between two
quarrelsome birds eager to fight, craning their snake-like necks
hissing savagely, and "lifting up themselves on high," but unable,
owing to the closeness with which they are packed, to do each other any
injury; and the real or fancied approach of a dog causes a sudden panic
and general stampede of the silly birds into one corner of the kraal,
threatening to break down its not very substantial hedge of dry
bush--one commotion scarcely having time to subside before another
arises.
And through it all, T----, Mr. B----, and our Kaffirs are calmly going
in and out among the struggling throng; all hard at work, the two
former steadily and methodically operating with their shears on each
bird as in its turn it is tugged along, like a victim to the sacrifice,
by three men; two holding its wings, and the third dragging at its long
neck till one fears that with all its kicks, plunges, tumbles, and
sudden wild leaps into the air, its flat, brainless little head will be
pulled off. One extra-refractory bird, when finally subdued, and
helpless in the hands of the pluckers, avenges his wrongs upon the
ostrich standing nearest to him in the crowd; and, for every feather
pulled from his own tail, gives a savage nip to the head of his
unoffending neighbour, a mild bird, who does not retaliate, but looks
puzzled, his own turn not yet having come. It is amusing to watch the
rapid retreat of each poor denuded creature when set free from his
tormentors. He goes out at the gate looking crestfallen indeed, but
apparently much relieved to find himself still alive.
How we enjoyed that day! and how delightful was our ride back to "Hume
Cottage" in the evening, with the proceeds of the plucking tied up in
two large white bags, and fastened to our saddles; making us look as if
we were taking our clothes to the wash. My bundle, by the way, came to
grief _en route_, and suddenly--somewhat to the discomposure of my
horse--we found ourselves enveloped in a soft snowstorm of feathers,
which went flying and whirling merrily away across the _veldt_; many of
them, in spite of our prompt dismounting to rush madly hither and
thither in pursuit, quite evading all our efforts to catch them.
The modern houses on Cape farms are all built entirely on utilitarian
principles, with no thought of grace or beauty; indeed, the square and
prosaic proportions of the ordinary packing-case seem to have been
chosen as the model in the construction of nearly every room. Even if
the inmates had any idea of comfort, or feeling for the picturesque--of
both of which they are quite innocent--it would be impossible ever to
make such rooms look either home-like or pretty. As it is, they are
most often like very uncomfortable schoolrooms.
Our first plan on coming to South Africa was the ambitious one of
setting our fellow-colonists a brilliant example by striking out
something entirely new in farm architecture; and many times during our
stay at Walmer would we talk over the white Algerian house, with the
comfort and loveliness of which our ostrich-farm, wherever it might be,
was to be transformed into a little oasis in the desert. T---- covered
many sheets of writing-paper with designs for the horse-shoe arches;
and with neatly-drawn plans for the long, cool Oriental rooms,
surrounding the square open court; in the centre of which was to be a
fountain with bananas, ferns, blue lotus, and other water-loving
plants.
Alas! however; when we did take a farm, we found ourselves obliged
after all to sacrifice beauty to usefulness, just like our neighbours.
The unlovely Dutch house, incapable as it was of adapting itself to
Moorish arches, had to be utilized; the press of other work allowing us
no time for pulling down and re-building, neither for indulging in any
artistic vagaries; and the two first rooms which--to meet immediate
requirements--were added as soon as bricks could be made for them,
were, for greater haste, built straight and square, in the true
packing-case style. They were the same size as the two old Dutch rooms;
flat-roofed like them, and built on to them in a straight line--the
four, each with its alternate door and window, reminding us of the rows
of little temporary rooms which form the dwellings of railway workmen
when a new line is being made, and which are moved on as the work
progresses.
After this unpromising beginning, it is needless to say that our idea
of building an Algerian house was given up; and though in time we
improved the outward appearance of our dwelling; breaking the
straightness of its outlines by the addition of a pretty little
sitting-room projecting from the front, and of a large bedroom and
store at the back; and plastering and whitewashing the dirty old bricks
and the too-clean new ones; nothing can ever make it anything but an
ugly house as far as the outside is concerned. With the interior,
however, we have been more successful; and our sitting-room, now
consisting of a T-shaped arrangement of three small rooms thrown into
one, is really--considering the roughness of the materials with which
we started--a very bright and cosy little nook. It is most quaint and
irregular, for one end of it is a room of the crookedly-built Dutch
house; and when the strong old wall, three feet thick, dividing the
latter from the new part, was knocked away, the old ceiling and floor
turned out to be considerably lower than the new. We dignify the deep
step thus formed by the name of "the dais."
[Illustration: OUR SITTING-ROOM.]
The latest-added portion of the room--built from T----'s own design--is
the prettiest of all; and the bow window at the end, always filled with
banana-plants, ferns, creepers, garden and wild flowers, forms quite a
little conservatory. Though disappointed of our Moorish court, we could
not give up the idea of our fountain without a struggle, and attempted
to establish it on a very small scale in this little room; in the
cement floor of which, not far from the bow window, we made a round
basin some four feet deep, which we filled with water. Then we wrote to
Walmer for some roots of our favourite blue lotus; with which, and with
the arums' white cups, the surface of the water was to be studded; and
by-and-by--we thought--as soon as the completion of more necessary
operations should allow leisure for ornamental work, how delightful it
would be, on coming in out of the dust and the heat, to hear the sweet,
refreshing sound of falling water; and to see the bright drops
splashing on the border of maidenhair fern which was to surround the
tiny basin.
But, after all, our anticipations were never realized; for we soon saw
that it would be necessary to choose between our fountain and our pet
animals--so numerous among the latter were cases of "Found Drowned."
Our meerkats, in their irrepressible liveliness, were always tumbling
in; and, being unable to climb up the straight sides, would swim round
and round calling loudly for assistance; but we were not always at hand
to play the part of Humane Society, and the losses were many,
including--saddest of all--that of a too-inquisitive young ostrich.
Thousands of gnats, too, as noisy and nearly as venomous as mosquitoes,
were brought into existence; and, romantic as was the idea of
water-plants growing in our little room, it had to be given up; and we
contented ourselves with seeing our blue lotus in the form of a dado,
on which we stencilled and painted them ourselves in the true Egyptian
conventional style, on alternate long and short stalks. We bordered the
fireplace, and decorated the tops of the doors, with a few good old
tiles from Damascus, Tunis, Algiers, and the Alhambra; three beautiful
hand-painted _sarongs_, brought by T---- from Java, formed each as
perfect and artistic a _portière_ as could be wished, and hid the ugly,
ill-made doors; and with Turkish rugs, Oriental embroideries of all
kinds, Moorish and Kabyle pottery, Algerian coffee-tables and brackets,
ancient Egyptian curiosities, and other trophies of travel, we produced
a general effect which--especially in South Africa--was not to be
despised.
I have conceitedly said "we," as if I had had a great share in the
work, but it was in reality T---- who did it all, and to whose artistic
taste the prettiness of our little home is entirely due. The capacity,
too, for turning his hand to anything, which makes him so perfect a
colonist, was invaluable to us on that out-of-the-way farm; for, there
being, after the departure of the itinerant workmen who built our
rooms, no painters, glaziers, masons, carpenters, or other such useful
people anywhere nearer than Graaff-Reinet--four hours by rail from
Klipplaat--all the repairs and improvements of the house devolved on
him. One day he would be putting new panes of glass in the windows--the
next, bringing a refractory lock into proper working order, or making
and putting up bookshelves--then, perhaps, a defective portion of the
roof would claim his attention, or he would enter on a long and
persevering conflict with a smoky chimney. One of the latter, indeed,
carelessly run up by our ignorant builder, was not cured until T----
had taken it all down and built it over again; since which its
behaviour has been blameless.
N.B.--When a chimney wants sweeping in the Karroo, the usual mode of
procedure is to send a fowl down it.
Our furniture, most of which was of that best kind of all for a hot
climate, the Austrian bent wood, arrived in very good condition; and in
spite of the rough roads along which the waggon had to bring it from
Klipplaat, hardly anything was damaged.
These Cape waggons, clumsy as they look, are splendidly adapted to the
abrupt ups and downs of the country over which they travel. They are
very long; and are made in such a way that, instead of jolting and
jumping up and down as an English waggon, under the trying
circumstances of a journey in South Africa, would certainly consider
itself justified in doing, they turn and bend about in quite a
snake-like manner, and the motion, even on the roughest road, is never
unpleasant. They are usually drawn by a span of sixteen or eighteen
oxen, sometimes by mules; and very noisily they go along; night--their
favourite travelling-time in hot weather--being made truly hideous
while a caravan of some four or five of them is coming slowly on, with
wheels creaking and groaning in all possible discordant notes, and the
Hottentot drivers and _voorloopers_--boys who run in front--cracking
their long hide whips, and urging on their animals with more fiendish
sounds than ever issued even from Neapolitan throats. One has to get
accustomed to the noise; but, apart from this drawback, the waggons are
most comfortable for travelling. They are large and spacious, and
roofed in by firmly-made tents which afford complete protection from
sun and rain; and for night journeys no Pullman car ever offered more
luxurious sleeping accommodation than does the _kartel_, a large,
strong framework of wood, as wide as a double-bed, suspended inside the
tent of the waggon. Across this framework are stretched narrow,
interlacing strips of hide; mattresses and rugs are placed on it, and
no more comfortable bed could be desired. The goods are all stowed
underneath the _kartel_, in the bottom of the waggon.
People often make shooting expeditions to the interior, travelling in
waggons and sometimes remaining away a year at a time. T---- has taken
several journeys of this kind, and speaks of it as a most enjoyable
life. You take a horse or two and a couple of pointers; you get plenty
of shooting during the day; and come back to the waggon in the evening
to find a bright fire burning near, and dinner being prepared by the
servants. The latter camp at night under the waggon. The average
distance travelled is twenty-five miles a day. There is no need to take
provisions for the cattle, as they are always able to graze on the way;
tracts of land, called public outspans, being set apart by Government
at convenient distances along the road as halting-places for waggons.
A Boer once told T---- a strange story of how--during one of the
numerous wars with the natives--he, his wife, and children were
travelling at night, when suddenly, without any apparent cause, the
waggon came to a standstill; the oxen, though beaten hard and pulling
with all their might, being unable to move it, although the road at
that place was perfectly level. After some delay, the cattle were just
as suddenly again able to move the waggon without difficulty; and the
Boer and his family proceeded on their way. They found afterwards that,
by this strange interruption to their journey, they had been prevented
from encountering an armed party of hostile natives, who just at that
time were crossing their road some distance in front of them.