THE BOERS.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3137, 8 March 1879, Page 1

THE BOERS.

The following account of, thejkoers is ;given m Mr Alfred Ajljrard'a book on " The Transvaal of Today: "—The Boers are really- a' peasantry—the largtfjt, landowning peasant* and/ peasant pronrietora ;in the world—but they are nothtag more* Hence the feeling of disappointment with [which aome visitors^^-casual observers jriew their present condition. Man einnofc conceive how the proprietors of fast lands and owners of flock* and herds hanr advanced so littlcyn the acquisition of the comforts and luxuries of European civilisation. They look for farmers where they should expect 1 only" to find" wealthy peasants; and as they see no evidence), around them of the wandermgs, TBsKts, fevers, agonies of long travel ana suffering through which the poor people have passed they are but too ready to accuse them of unprogressiveness and want of enterprise, where really the enterprise has been exceptionally great- and the progress remarkable, under me circumstances. The characters of the Boers, as well as their habits and custom*, are strongly impressed by their wanderings and' sufferings. If anyone of the family is about to rjde but a, few miles beyond is own extensive holding, before learing his house he respectfully bids farewell to his father and friends with almost as much ceremony as a European wonld use in undertaking a journey, of weeks' duration. In the same way*. persons—whether they be visitors, strangers, neighbours, O|, kinsmen—coming to homestead, greet each of the family on their, first entrance under its' roof/and are'in turn shaken hands with by each and every member of the .household. This custom arose from Ijhe meetings and the partings of forty-four years, during which those who met met' as persons delivered from great dangers? and those who parted parted as do those who may meet no more: '.The Boers had few candles in the wilderness during during their long and weary pilgrimage. A 4 little coarse fat from slaughtered animals, with a bit of rag, made their only lamp. They consequently acquired habits of retiring early. to rest —the daylight throughout its entire length being utilised for "their labors, this habit, with the necessity for early rising incumbent on herdsmen, has clung to them, and it is but rarely you meet with a family that,enjoys those pleasant^ evening hours so dear to Europeans/ when, amidst comfortable lights and fires, the labors of. the day being at an end, the household devotes itself .to the innocent pleasures of, social and 1 domestic intercourse. With the Beeiv-the sun being Bet and the cattle and,stock impounded in their kraals*and, places of safety, the short twilight is almost immediately followed by a dinner, and supper, all in one —tber meal .of the day; ;TU table is no Booner. cleared .than the family jMtefnbles, ■ as it had done for years in tberdettrfc for united prayers. Thiai&ptf accomplished, they-jepacate at.^ef to..th«r fajjous quarters. 'People complain muoh : of the Boers'houses, saying they we.re inntidy, unfioored, and inaufficiently.lighted...lt. should be remembered,' on the other hand, that the house is almost always the work ...of. the owner'a hands. It has been put up under difficultiesof.a most exceptional nature, in a country but yesterday rescued from wild beas** »nd still-wilder barbarians. Whether it *»* beside some beautiful stream, or standing won a, naked, .and and deso-: late flat; or bC?ned.under. steep h*t!«dM in some lonely OT...almost maeeMiable mountain kloof, it bas been constructed without the 1 assistance of skilled labour, and from rough, : materjal» found upon or I hear to itsjsite. Beams do not grow m every direction ready cut and dressed to the builders hands., Those that theßoers have used-.have been procured at a cost of much^ labour and expense from very considerable distances. The t difficulty m n bbtaining heavy timber has exercised an influence even orer the shape of the tanner's houses, which cannot afford* the luxuries of immense rooms and spreading roofs. In the' same way -window-frames, and glass to fill them,-were for years almost entirely unobtainable by -the. settlers north of the Orange and Veal rivers. ■Therefore the windows are m many houses small And few in number, resembling, more often than otherwise, B hot.hol,s. # ,- # - #1 # ' - That the Boers have vices and strong prejudices Ido not deny. Some of these give rise to comical incidents, showing at once their simplicity and their weakness. I remember long age some farmers at;. Nacht maal—ths communion service of the Dutch Church—thronged into a store / • make purchases after their usual: I „' ••». ■ One of them who had bought a box of*tea, °Pen' a 4 nJ out of which M ew" eyes of the storekeeper, he V °PPed ' inij the tea-chest, which had bee.. "lEJ weighed. When he was Sc " h"S up,- however, ' pretending to disco. some defect in the weighing,' the, counterman re-weighed the caso; and as ho charged 4>i 4d per pound for tea, the Dutchman (wfyd of courge could not draw attention to nineponnd bar he had thrust into it) had the pleasure of paying at that rate for the lead. The principal evil amongst them seems to-be their system of too early marriages./ Young people are, not unfrequently beginning as married men and women when all' Englishman's apprenticeship more often commences. They take on themselves the cares of a family, and all the .{roubles of.'domestio life, at almost incredibly early ages, sometimes beginning, the-world with very scanty means, and havingto labor in much, the same way as their fathers did during the original.settlement, for many longyeara before they can gain any approximation to the comforts they epjoyed in the paternal homes. This early domesticity, no doubt, has in some directions excellent results,

but it unfits many young men for war and border service, weakening terribly the available force of the farming population. Many of the girls are extremely pretty, and I have found beauties amongst the j Boers quite as much in demand as amongst | more favoured nations. I have known a , young girl whose manners, self-possessien, and education would have been creditable to the daughter of geople of a far higher class in life. She could dress well and dance well, and was as virtuous and amiable as any young lady in Europe. She married among her own people; and I am not the-least ashamed to say that many Europeans, including myself, seemed to have been very sorry for it. Many of the Boer ladies are not uncomely. Even in the wild neighbourhood of Lydenberg itself ther,e are; some to be seen bearing traces of beauty of no, ordinary pbaracter, and whose lives are useful, adorning and cheering the homes of their husbands and children. ! • >