OUR NEIGHBOURS.
Hospitality of Cape colonists--Cheating and jealousy in business--
Comfortless homes--Spoilt children--Education--The "Schoolmaster"--
Convent schools--A priest-ridden nation--The _Nachtmaal_--Old French
names--A South African duke in Paris--Fine-looking men--Fat women--
Ignorance of _Vrouws_--Boers unfriendly to English--A mean man.
There is much to be admired in the character of those decidedly
unpolished diamonds, the colonial-born, English-speaking inhabitants of
the Karroo. They are a fine, sturdy, self-reliant race, splendidly
fitted in every way for their extremely rough-and-ready surroundings.
In kindliness and hospitality they are unsurpassed, even by the
much-praised dwellers in Arab tents or white, flat-roofed Moorish
houses; and in the isolated homesteads where they live their rough, but
simple and healthy lives, the heartiest reception is invariably
accorded alike to friends, slight acquaintances, and even perfect
strangers. Perhaps you are one of the latter, and, on a long journey,
you outspan at the dam of a farm, with the intention of remaining only
long enough to give the horses the necessary water and rest before you
_trek_ again. But no sooner is your cart or spider seen to stop than
you are sought out, with kind and pressing invitation to come in. No
matter how full the house may already be, how late or inconvenient the
hour of your unexpected arrival on a Cape farm, a place is always found
for you at the table; and, if needed, some sort of a night's lodging,
of however _impromptu_ a description, will be prepared for you. The
colonist joyfully makes you welcome to his best. If you are staying in
his house, a mount or a seat in his conveyance is always at your
disposal; and the longer you can remain, the better he and all his
kind-hearted family are pleased. It is true that their home is far from
being a luxurious one, and that none of them have much idea of comfort;
but the latter article being, on account of the isolation and of the
bad servants, somewhat difficult of attainment, it is on the whole just
as well that no one misses it sufficiently to regret its absence; and
one cannot but admire and envy the philosophical manner in which the
colonists take things as they come, making themselves perfectly happy
under any circumstances.
Altogether there is so much that is lovable in the colonial character,
that you are sometimes disappointed to find that there is a reverse to
this bright side of the picture, and that--even by those who have
received you the most hospitably, and who apparently, while you were
their guest, could not do enough for you--you are liable, in business
transactions, to be woefully cheated. It is thought no disgrace to get
the better of any one in a bargain, whether on an iniquitously large or
contemptibly small scale; on the contrary, it is considered rather
clever and smart to "do a shot" on the guileless and unsuspecting new
chum, fresh from a country where a somewhat different code of honour
obtains.
Business jealousies, too, are another source of trouble to the
uninitiated. If any farmer has a project which seems likely to turn out
a good thing for him, he had better be careful that no bird of the air
whispers it about beforehand among his neighbours and rivals, who, one
and all, will only be too glad if they can bring his plans to naught.
Time seems to be of no more value to the Cape colonists than it is to
the followers of Islam, and "letting things slide" is pretty generally
the order of the day. One is rather puzzled at this weak point in
otherwise active, energetic characters; and certainly, living as these
people do in the splendid air of the Cape--exhilarating as champagne,
and making all who inhale it feel glad to be alive--they cannot, like
the limp, supine inhabitants of Eastern lands, plead the excuse of an
enervating climate. Much of the discomfort in the houses is due to this
frightful habit of procrastinating. Whatever is broken is, as often as
not, left unmended for an indefinite time; little repairs, which need
but the minimum of time and trouble, but the neglect of which would
cause daily annoyance and discomfort to any but these easy-going
mortals, are put off from week to week and from month to month. And
every one is just as happy and contented, with violent draughts and
clouds of dust blowing in through two or three broken windows at once;
or with a glass outer door whose handle has been off for months, and
which continually flaps noisily backwards and forwards, admitting gusts
of cold wind and flocks of turkeys and fowls into the room; as if all
things were in perfect order. Poultry and domestic animals, indeed,
have it all their own way on Karroo farms with the delightful freedom
enjoyed by their brethren in Irish cabins. At one house, for instance,
if the dining-room was left for a moment when the cloth was laid for a
meal, half a dozen fowls would be on the table, picking the bread to
pieces; while in another I have several times assisted our hosts in
ejecting a too-friendly pig from the bedroom. To give South African
pigs their due, I must say that in that driest of climates they are
less uncleanly in their persons, and hence rather less objectionable
indoors, than they would be in Europe. But we had English prejudices,
and discountenanced the visits of members of the farm-yard; and Toto
had standing orders, which he faithfully obeyed, to keep the rooms
clear of live stock of all kinds, with the exception of privileged
pets.
Even more terrible than the intrusive animals are the spoilt children.
During their earlier years the little colonists are left very much to
themselves: they run wild, like young colts, about their native farm,
no one takes the trouble to interfere with them, and they are allowed
to retain, unchecked, all the rude, rough habits which they have
acquired from their uncivilized Hottentot nurse-girls. They do as they
like, say whatever comes uppermost, and behave at table in any sort of
outrageous fashion that pleases them; while the father and mother sit
unmoved, apparently surprised at nothing their progeny may see fit to
do. The latter being totally unencumbered by bashfulness, the presence
of strangers acts as no restraint; and a dinner taken in the company of
a large family of boys, of stolid parents, and indifferent elder
sisters, is for the newly-imported English visitor a novel and rather
startling experience, the details of which, however, are best left to
oblivion.
But, on the whole, the young Africander's bringing-up--unpleasant
though he certainly is during the process--is no doubt the best
possible one to fit him for the rough and active life of the farms,
and to form in him that independent character and those habits of
self-reliance and smartness in money matters which, when he is grown
up, stand him in such good stead. And he _does_ grow up with astounding
rapidity; being at fifteen a thorough man of business, able to "do a
deal" with any one, and taking good care, you may be sure, that the
transaction is no unprofitable one to himself. In this respect he
affords a decided contrast to the average young Englishman, who, at
twenty-five, is often--where business matters are concerned--as
inexperienced as a boy.
The difficulties in the way of providing the children with a good
education are by no means one of the least of South African drawbacks;
especially for those living on the far-off country farms. Colonial
schools do not seem to be much in favour, at least for boys, and the
great ambition of a Cape parent is to send his sons home to be educated
in Europe--most frequently for the medical profession, a doctor's
position being the most coveted one in the colony. In the Edinburgh
University, especially, the Africander element is in great force. Those
parents who cannot afford to have their boys educated in Europe
generally contrive to secure the services of some broken-down
gentleman, occasionally even of a clergyman, who lives on the farm
and--too often for a shamefully small salary, indeed in one or two
instances for nothing but his keep--fills the post of tutor, or, as his
employers call him, "schoolmaster," to the turbulent young tribe. As
may be imagined, his life is not a very enviable one, the breaking-in
process being all the harder in consequence of the long period, prior
to his advent, when his charges were allowed to run wild out of doors
all day long--to the immense benefit, no doubt, of their robust young
bodies, but to the utter neglect of all intellectual and moral
training.
The schoolmaster does not seem to have been a very general institution
in the days when some of the older colonists were young; and a business
correspondence with Karroo farmers sometimes elicits the wildest
vagaries of orthography. T----, for instance, received a letter from
one of our neighbours, in which the following sentences occurred: "Your
hostridges are vary onpleasand on the public outspan. Pleas to try and
halter tham." Another correspondent, intent on the purchase of
ostriches, told us he wished "to bye buirds."
For girls, the convent schools in several of the larger towns are
undoubtedly the best, both as regards the good, sensible education
imparted, and the refined, lady-like manners which are invariably
acquired by all who have been brought up under the tutelage of the
nuns. Throughout the whole country, the convent-bred girls can
always be recognised at a glance, and the contrast is very striking
between them and the less fortunate ones who possess but the
superficial education and second-rate manners of the average colonial
boarding-school. Even the daughters of the roughest Boers, if sent to a
convent school, are turned out perfect ladies, and return to their
up-country homes with gentle and gracious manners strangely out of
keeping with their uncouth surroundings. But there are many parents, of
course, to whom all the advantages of convent education could not
compensate for that insuperable objection, the risk of Romanizing
influence; and intending settlers in the colony who do not wish to
expose their daughters to that risk will do well to bring out a good
governess with them, and keep the girls at home.
The Boer's great desire, like that of his English-speaking neighbour,
is to get his boys educated in Europe; but, instead of the medical
profession, the pastorate is the object of his ambition. For these Cape
Dutch, although Protestants, are quite as priest-ridden as any Roman
Catholic nation; the _predikant_ is a great man indeed throughout the
widespread circle of his parishioners, and to offend him, or even to
fail in paying him the exact amount of deference he considers his due,
means to be boycotted.
The _nachtmaal_, or communion, is only administered--as among Scotch
Presbyterians--twice or three times during the year; and on these rare
occasions the little 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, plodding 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 _kappjes_ 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
frequent 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 the colony. Some time ago, Napoleon III.,
anxious to restore the ancient nobility, sent for one of these Boers,
who, in the old country, was the heir to a dukedom, inviting him to
resume his title and estates. The colonist came to Paris, and, after
giving European life a fair trial, became homesick for his vineyard
and his farm, and--perhaps impelled by that attraction which seems
to draw back to the Cape those who have once lived under its bright
sky--decided in favour of his old-fashioned life, and, resigning all
his ancestral rights, went joyfully home to the rough surroundings of
his childhood.
Although the Boers are fine, well-built, handsome men, their feminine
relatives, far from equalling them in good looks, are as fat and
ungraceful as any inmates of Turkish harems. Fortunately, however,
excessive obesity is in the eyes of a Boer the very quality of all
others which constitutes the chief attraction of a _mooie vrouw_
(handsome woman); and when he uses the latter expression you may be
sure that he speaks of a ponderous being, no less than thirteen or
fourteen stone in weight. In this matter of taste the Boers resemble
not only the Turks, but also the Zulus, who can pay a woman no higher
compliment than to compare her to a she-elephant. The _vrouws_ become
_passées_ at a very early age, and are apparently shortlived in
comparison with their lords, if one may judge from the fact that it is
no uncommon thing to meet a man of fifty who has already had three
wives.
Intellectually, no less than physically, the Boer women are
considerably the inferiors of the men. They have evidently lived for
generations in blissful ignorance, with no more education than falls to
the lot of the Oriental ladies they so closely resemble in figure.
Their husbands and fathers have been quite contented with the existing
state of things; and it is only of late years that a few of the more
enlightened parents, beginning at last to recognise the value of female
education, have been sending their daughters to the convent schools.
In Spain, an equally strong contrast may be observed between the men
and the women; but it is reversed, the advantage being on the side of
the _señoras_, who somehow appear too handsome and intelligent to
belong to the ignoble, mean-looking men.
The Boers used to be very friendly with the English; but now--thanks
to the sad and too well-known manner in which our Government has
muddled South African affairs--we are most unpopular. Formerly, if an
Englishman on his journey came to a Dutchman's house, he was most
hospitably received--though etiquette demanded that on his departure
he should offer money in payment for his food and bed, in order that
his host might have the pleasure of refusing it; but now, were he to
present himself, the chances are that the Boer would insultingly offer
him a night's lodging in the negroes' quarters, as was once the case
with T----.
Meanness is a prominent trait in the Boer's character. Indeed, the
reputation which he has acquired--not altogether justly--for being such
a splendid shot, really and truly proceeds from his excessive care to
make sure of his game, and thus waste no cartridges. Here is an
instance which almost equals Max Adeler's mean man. When T---- was at
the Kimberley Diamond Fields, a Kaffir fell one day from the narrow
pathway left between the claims into one of the latter, belonging to a
Dutchman. He landed on the little table used by the Boer for sorting
his diamonds, and--the height from which he had fallen being eighty
feet--not only the table, but nearly every bone in the unfortunate
man's body was broken. He seems, however, to have possessed a
wonderfully strong constitution, and actually recovered from his
terrible injuries: and, his case exciting very general sympathy among
the kindly diamond-diggers, a subscription was made for him. But, long
before he was convalescent, the Boer called on him, demanding payment
for the broken table, the whole value of which did not amount to more
than thirty shillings.