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KNOWLEDGE

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THE BOORS, OR DUTCH FARMERS.

Iv a short account of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, contained in this work, (Vol. X., pp. 41 and 217,) we reserved for some future time an account of the manners and customs of the natives, and the natural history of the country. We are now about to redeem the pledge made to our readers, and propose, in a short series of illustrated articles, to offer some further information respecting this interesting and remarkable portion of the globe.

The Hottentot race is separated from all nations of the globe, and easily distinguishable from them, by the peculiarity of the language spoken by its people, and the singular clapping noise accompanying their pronunciation. To this race are referable the Bushmen, Namaquas, Korahs, and Hottentots proper of Cape Colony. The more civilized race of Kaffers includes the Bichuanas, Dammaras, Tambookis, Kaffers proper, and probably all the tribes on the eastern side of the continent as far as Dalagoa Bay.

In giving an account of some of these tribes, we propose, 1st, to describe the Dutch colonists; 2nd, the Bushmen; 3rd, Korah's dwelling in the heart of the Bushmen's country; 4th, Kaffers; 5th, Bichuanas.

There are many inconveniences attending the situation fixed on for the chief town of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. The inland traffic connected with it is carried on with much risk and difficulty, both on account of its remote position at the extreme corner of the country, and of the miserable state of the roads by which it is approached; while the barrenness and deficiency of pasturage in the tract of VOL. XVII.

land lying around Cape Town exposes the boors, or Dutch farmers, trading there to the most serious inconvenience. Those boors who reside at a distance of five or six hundred miles from Cape Town generally make but one journey thither in the course of the year; and on such occasions the vehicles which convey them have much the appearance of a house, containing, in addition to the principal members of the family, goats, sheep, dogs, monkeys, poultry, &c. For the sake of affording means of protection during their journey, a musket or two and ammunition are provided, which are also made use of to procure game for their subsistence by the way. The appearance of the wagon bearing this motley group, drawn by a team of eight, ten, or even sixteen oxen, with the immoderately long whip of the driver, and the naked figure of the little Hottentot leading the foremost pair, is to a stranger in the country both novel and amusing. The driving seat is considered an honourable post; but the office of leading the oxen is looked upon as degrading to any but a Hottentot or slave.

Between Cape Town and the cultivated districts lie the extensive sandy plains, commonly called the Cape Downs. These plains are traversed by numberless roads and wheel-tracks in every direction: the soil is composed of loose white sand on a substratum of clay, supporting only a few stunted shrubs and rushes. A few solitary huts are scattered here and there, the habitations of Hottentots, who gain their living by collecting fire-wood, or tending such cattle as are kept on this miserable pasture.

On account of the general barrenness of the country, the boors often stop but a single day at Cape Town,

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After having come the distance of perhaps twenty days' journey, they cross the barren heath just described, and frequently unyoke, or outspan, as it is called, at Salt River, to-be ready to enter the town at day-break the next morning. By this means they are often enabled to sell the produce they have brought with them, and to make the purchases they may require, during the day, and immediately set out on their return from this inhospitable neighbourhood. Our frontispiece represents the halting of one of these parties, and their arrangements for a season of temporary repose.

The dwellings of several of these Dutch farmers were visited by Mr. Burchell, who has given a particular account of their appearance and arrangements. Among the more opulent he met with much hospitality and a considerable display of their resources, but even in the lowest class, there was ever a readiness to open the door to the hungry and benighted stranger. In the family of a farmer of the middle class, whose dwelling did not indicate much of affluence or comfort, but whose family appeared contented and happy, the same traveller took up his abode for a day or two, and made the observations from which we extract the following particulars. The situation of this farmer's dwelling was bleak and exposed, and there was not much display of art or cultivation around it. It was situated on a wide flat, bounded by rocky mountains. One large room, having a mud floor and a single glazed window, whose broken panes displayed the scarcity of glass in that quarter, formed the principal part of the house. At one end were the bed-rooms, and at the other a very deep and wide fire-place, exactly resembling that of an English farmhouse. Over this fire stood a large cauldron of boiling soap. (We may here remark that the boors often find it better economy to consume their sheep in their own families, and convert the fat into soap, which is sold at their annual visit to Cape Town, than to sell the animals at the low price which they are able to obtain for them). A door in the back wall of the apartment opened into the kitchen. A small window near the fire-place, was at the season of our traveller's visit kept constantly closed with a wooden shutter, to exclude the cold wind, as it had neither sash nor glass. Near the glazed window stood a small table, and on it a little old-fashioned coffee-urn, an article in continual employment. On each side of the table were stationed two homely-looking chairs for the use of the master and mistress. A few chairs and benches, with a large family dining-table, were ranged in order round the room. On a shelf lay a large Bible, and a few other books.

A black slave and a Hottentot girl assisted in the domestic duties, while the more laborious work of the farm was performed by a man-slave and a few Hottentots. The daughters of the farmer, three in number, were under the tuition of an itinerant tutor, or meester, as he was called, who had been for several months an inmate of the family. This person could make himself understood both in English and French, and appeared fully equal to the task of completing the education of a boor's family. He was a Hollander by birth, and had passed the last twenty-nine years of his life in the colony. Schoolmasters of this description are dispersed everywhere throughout the country. In many instances their abilities are of too low an order to allow of their getting a living by the same occupation in their native country. They generally traverse a great portion of the colony, for their usual stay at each house is only from six to twelve months, and in this time they must engage to complete the education of their pupils in reading, writing, and arithmetic.

The head of this family employed his farm only in

rearing cattle, for the purchase of which he was visited at certain periods by a person called a slagter's knegt (butcher's man.) This slagter's knegt is a person commissioned by a butcher in Cape Town to travel into the grazing districts, and buy up the number of sheep or oxen he may require; for which the man pays the grázier, not in money, but in small notes of hand, called slagter's brief, previously signed by his employer, and the validity of which is certified at the fiscal's office. They are considered as good as cash, into which the grazier converts them, whenever he takes them to town, or they are sometimes negotiated in payment with his neighbours.

Since the English have had possession of the land, the wealth and prosperity of the country have greatly increased, and the condition of the Dutch farmers is much bettered. The costume of the better classes of this race now consists of articles entirely of English manufacture, while in former times their general attire was such as is now to be seen among the poorest class, and Hottentots, where the men's jackets and even the women's gowns and petticoats are made of sheep-leather. The tanning process is performed by affixing the skin of a zebra, or other animal, to a frame supported by four stakes, and allowing the middle of the skin to fall down, so as to form a capacious basin, or tanning-vat. This basin is filled with a liquid, containing a quantity of bark from the acacia, or from some other of those trees which afford the tanning principle, and in it are immersed the sheep-skins, previously deprived of hair for that purpose.

There is a custom among the boors, which, however, is now gradually wearing away, of halting on a journey and dismounting to salute the passing stranger. This practice is supposed to have taken its rise from the pleasure felt by the early settlers at the sight of a white man in those distant places of banishment from the world; a circumstance which in former days was extremely rare. Seldom visiting or visited, they felt that a Christenmensch (a Christian) should never be passed without salutation. But as population increases this sentiment is weakened, and the custom derived from it is less frequently observed, or if performed is rather the act of ceremony than the token of neighbourly feeling and mutual good will.

Next the termination of the inhabited parts of Cape Colony lies a wide and sandy region, known as the great Karro, which is the Hottentot word for dry, arid. Portions of this desert afford sustenance for sheep and horses, which constitute the chief support of the boors residing there. The dwellings of these men are of a humbler description than that which we have spoken of above; being nothing more than small, low huts, rudely thatched, with reed and sedge, and very meanly furnished. The space immediately around the dwelling is called the werf, and beyond this are placed the sheep-folds, hedged in with branches of thorn. The flocks of these farmers usually consist of from two to five thousand sheep, but even those possessed of the latter number can scarcely be said to be affluent. As very little corn is grown on the district, the inhabitants live almost entirely on mutton. Three meals of mutton are generally consumed each day, and that in most cases without the addition of bread, which is considered a very great rarity. The sheep are driven to a considerable distance in search of pasturage, and consume, like locusts, every blade of grass and leafy twig they can find. Their return at night is said to be an interesting sight, streaming from all quarters, like an inundation over the ridges and low hills, or moving in a compact body, like an invading army, driven forwards only by two or three Hottentots and a few dogs.

ΜΑΝΝΑ.

AND when the dew that lay was gone up, behold upon the face of

closer in its foliage. The exudation from this tree, in its purest state, is called flake manna, and is received in long pieces of a pale buff colour, light, dry, and

the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar friable, and bearing the impression of the branches

frost upon the ground.

And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. EXODUS xvi., 14, 15.

on which it had concreted. It has a peculiar and somewhat disagreeable odour, with a sweet and nauseous taste. It is perfectly soluble in water, and in alcohol. When boiled in alcohol, and allowed to cool, a deposit of sugar is obtained, which has been termed mannite, and which differs from common sugar in not being susceptible of fermentation.

THE history of the children of Israel during their forty years' wanderings in the wilderness, from the period of their departure from Egypt till their settlement in the promised land, forms a most interesting But the European manna is inferior to the Oriental, and instructive portion of the sacred writings, as which is gathered partly from the Oriental oak, and exhibiting on the one hand the forbearance and long-partly from a shrub, which is called in Persia Terensuffering of the Almighty towards the nation which He had appointed to preserve and diffuse the light of true religion in the world; and, on the other, the selfishness and discontent of the human heart, as shown in the murmurings, and repinings, and lookings back to the luxuries of Egypt, of this people, so lately redeemed from a state of slavery and bondage,

The miraculous manner in which the vast multitude was sustained during the protracted journey is not the least remarkable of the events recorded. The fall of manna was continued throughout the year for the whole period of forty years, and an assembly greater than was ever perhaps collected together in one camp for so long a period before or since, was fed in this extraordinary manner. When recapitulating these events at the termination of their wanderings, Moses thus calls on Israel to keep them gratefully in mind:

And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Deut. viii., 2, 3.

This manna, which was a small white grain, the size of coriander-seed, fell every morning with the dew, (except on the Sabbath days,) from Friday, June 5th, A.M. 2513, to Wednesday, May 5th, 2553, or 1451 years before Christ.

Bearing in mind the peculiar circumstances connected with this manna, i.e., that it formed an article of wholesome and substantial food for upwards of two millions of persons; that it fell, not for a few months of the year only, but in all seasons, before the eyes of a vast number of witnesses, who, together with their descendants, were commanded to keep the miracle perpetually in mind, and to lay up a portion of the manna as a memento to succeeding generations, so that we find "the golden pot that had manna" mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews as one of the sacred things contained in the ark of the covenant,bearing these things in mind, it will be interesting to review the accounts given by travellers of the natural production now called manna, in the countries of Southern Europe, and more especially of that which is found in Syria, Arabia, and Persia.

Manna is the common name for the thick, clammy, and sweet juice which oozes from certain trees and shrubs growing in the south of Europe, and concretes on the bark. This juice sometimes exudes spontaneously, but the best European manna is obtained by incisions made in the trees. The manna common in our druggists' shops is obtained from a species of ash, growing abundantly in Calabria and Sicily, which is of smaller size than our common ash, seldom exceeding thirty feet in height, and is denser and

gabin, or Terendschabin. The manna gathered about Ispahan is described by Gmelin as consisting of grains like coriander-seeds, as white as snow. The peasants gather it at sunrise, holding a sieve under the branch, while they beat it with a stick to make the grain fall: if the gathering be deferred to a later hour, no manna can be obtained, because, as the sun becomes hot, it melts.

Niebuhr, in his Description of Arabia, informs us that manna is obtained from the ash in the neighbourhood of Diarbekir. The time for gathering it is in July or August. There are three ways of obtaining this manna, and the quality varies according to the means employed. The best manna is collected in cloths, into which it is shaken from the branches of the tree at sunrise. The next sort consists of that which has melted in the sun, and again becomes hard, so that additional layers have been added daily, and the leaves become thickly covered. These leaves are carried home, and thrown into hot water, when the manna settles on the surface of the water like oil, and hardens into cakes. The third and worst sort is obtained by those who do not like the trouble of the last process, and consists of the leaves and manna pounded up together. The same traveller also describes the manna of Ispahan, before alluded to, and considers it more nearly to resemble the manna of the Israelites than any other, adding, however, "But if the children of Israel gathered manna throughout the whole year, with the exception of the Sabbath, (Exod. xvi., 22, 23,) this did not happen merely in a natural manner, because the Terendschabin is only gathered during a few months."

In the manna of Ispahan, however, there is still this difference to that described by Moses;-that it merely oozes out of the stem, branches, and leaves of certain plants, and does not fall upon the ground so as to resemble hoar-frost.

Should we not be induced, (says Oedmann,) to return to the old opinion, that manna falls with the dew? Let it be supposed that the great heat of Arabia expels a quantity of sweet juices from different kinds of shrubs and trees growing there, as rhamnus, date-trees, &c.; that these exhalations float or rise in the air as long as their specific gravity is less than that of the atmosphere; that they are condensed by the coolness of the night, and by the laws of gravitation fall with the dew, or more probably form with the dew one common substance. They must, therefore, when they fall in quantities, consist of a clammy and honey-like substance, which acquires more solidity by the coldness of the night; when, after the fall of this clammy dew, the watery parts evaporate, the sweet and heavier manna remains behind like hoar-frost, or sugar; but when the rays of the sun begin to have more power, these grains melt likewise.

The opinion above quoted seems fully verified by the observation of travellers. In travelling through Palestine, Shaw found the dew to possess a clammy sweetness, so that it adhered to his dress, and to the bridle and saddle. Felix Fabri relates a similar occurrence; and Forskal was informed by the monks

at Tor, that manna falls on the roof of their convent. It is also recorded in public papers, that in the year 1793, at Vizzine, in Sicily, the weather being very fine, a dark cloud came over from the south, and dissolved into rain. The drops, which were very fine, consisted of a tough saccharine fluid, which at length hardened, and became similar to gum-mastich. country people, who ate of it, found it very agreeable, and it had a similar effect on them to the manna used in medicine.

The

Travellers, who have visited the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai, give a similar description of the manna found there. It falls in the months of August and September, and hangs in drops on leaves, twigs, grass, and stones. If gathered early, it remains hard and in distinct pieces, like coriander-seeds; but at a later part of the day, it runs together like pitch. In taste it resembles honey, and, when eaten, sticks to the teeth. This manna does not fall every year; for when Sinai was visited by Eurman, a learned Swede, in 1712, there had been none for two years.

Burckhardt considers the manna obtained from the tamarisk, or tarfa, to come the nearest to the scriptural account. This substance is called by the Arabs "mann:" it exudes from the thorns of the tamarisk, and falls on the leaves and twigs, which are always found beneath the tree. It is very similar to the different kinds of manna already described, and is highly prized by the Bedouins in that part of Arabia, in which it is found. They separate it carefully from the leaves, &c., among which it is found, boil it through a coarse piece of cloth, and put it in leather skins. Thus they preserve it till the following year, using it in the same way as honey, and pouring it over their unleavened bread. If eaten in any considerable quantity, it is slightly purgative. When kept in a cool place, it hardens, but never sufficiently so to be pounded, as we find was the case with the manna of the Israelites. (Numbers, xi. 8.) "And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it."

We must here mention one other description of manna given by Rauwolff. It is of a kind which he found to be commonly used in the neighbourhood of Mosul, and which the inhabitants said they received from Armenia. It was sent to them in pieces as large as a man's fist, was of a brown colour, much firmer than that of Calabria but not so sweet. It was also less laxative, and was therefore wholesome, as well as pleasant to eat. Numerous small red grains were found in this substance, but they did not affect the taste of the manna, and the inhabitants ate large pieces of it in the morning "in the same way," says our author, "as the country people of Algan, in the mountains, do cheese."

In all these accounts of the manna of different countries, we find some points of resemblance to that of the Scriptures. The manna of the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai in particular, falling as we are informed it does with the dew, and resembling in form and taste that which Moses likens unto corianderseed, and of which he says "the taste of it was like wafers made with honey," (Exod. xvi., 31.) seems almost like the same substance, yet we do not find it even hinted by travellers that the quality or quantity of this manna is such as to make it a means of subsistence for those who are passing through the desert. We must also remember that ordinary manna is found only during a part of the year, and that that which has been observed in the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai has been of short continuance, small in quantity, and possessing the usual laxative properties of this sub

stance. And in such a barren region as that "waste howling wilderness," it is not likely that there should have been found, at any period, a sufficient number of trees and shrubs yielding their juices to the sun to have supplied even for a few weeks the marvellous shower, which so much excited the astonishment of the children of Israel. Neither is it to be supposed that the circumstance, if of ordinary occurrence in the East, would have made so great an impression on their minds, nor that they would have been at a loss for a name by which to distinguish the manna. That the people knew not what to call this newly-found substance is evident by the marginal reading of the 16th chapter of Exodus and the 15th verse, where we find that the Hebrew words rendered in our

translation It is manna, literally mean What is this? The substance has obtained its name from the sound of those Hebrew words, which is man-hoo.

The vast quantity of manna received by the Israelites, its descent at all seasons of the year, the double portion given on the sixth day, the absence of it on the seventh, the circumstances attending the infringement of the command to leave none of it (except on the eve of the Sabbath) until the morning, &c., were all distinctly miraculous, whether we suppose the manna to have been a natural production of the land through which the Israelites were travelling, or a new substance brought into existence for the supply of their immediate wants. This manna may therefore be called "a peculiar thing," and the miracle by which the wants of the children of Israel was supplied is in no way heightened by supposing that the substance was literally "rained down from heaven," which expression very often simply means from the atmosphere, or from the region of the air.

In a nature so unsearchable as that of God, and a scheme so vast as that of His universal government, there must be many things which creatures of our limited faculties cannot approach towards comprehending, and merely from want of comprehending, may fancy to be full of incredi bilities, which, could we but know more, or would we but remember that we know so little, would instantly vanish. In matters, therefore, which we understand so very imperfectly, to set up human imagination against divine authority; to rely on crude notions, that things are impossible, which proper testimony shows to be true in fact; or that God cannot be, or do, what, by His own declarations, He is, and hath done, betrays a disposition widely distant from the modesty which becomes us.-ARCHBISHOP SECKER.

TO THE FLOWER FORGET-ME-NOT.
"I muse on the works of Thy hands."-PSALM CXLIII, 5.
Thou sweet little flower with the bright blue eye,
That peepest from the bank so modestly,
Thou art come from a source invisible,
And thou hast some important words to tell.
Thou art come like the "still small voice" of Him
Who whispers His truth in the evening dim;
Who shines in the stars of the azure sky*,
And gems the dark world with piety.
Thou art come as a warning to wandering souls,
Who are careless of time, as it swiftly rolls,
And forgetful of Godt, Who upholds their lot,
But Who whispers in thee-Forget me not.
Thou art come as a gift from a friend sincere,
Whose dwelling is fixed in the heavenly sphere
But Whose Spirit is with us in every spot,
And the voice of Whose works is-Forget me no
Thou art come to repeat an assurance of love
From that changeless Friend, in the mansions above:
To the soul that loves Christ in sincerity

His goodness declares-I will not forget thee§.-T. C

* Psalmo xix. 1. Ibid ix. 17. Prov. xviii. 24. Isai. xliv. 15.

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HEDINGHAM CASTLE, ESSEX.

contains between two and three thousand inhabitants.

Castle Hedingham adjoins the parish just named. The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is an ancient gothic building, with an embattled brick parapet; and from the architectural peculiarities which it presents, it is supposed to have been built during the reign or King John. It has lofty and spacious aisles and nave, with circular and octagonal pillars of stone, supporting gothic arches: the ceiling is formed of wood, and ornamented with curious carvings. The lofty tower was rebuilt in 1616, the expense being partly defrayed by the produce-money of four of the bells of the tower, which were sold for that purpose. There is a spacious chancel, separated from the nave and aisles by a lofty carved wooden screen: there were at one time a number of stalls here, but these have been since removed to another part of the church.

HEDINGHAM CASTLE, ESSEX. HEDINGHAM is the name of two parishes in Essex, the one called Sible Hedingham, the other Castle Hedingham, which together occupy a very rich and pleasant part of the country. Of these two parishes, especially that which contains the castle represented in our frontispiece, we propose to give a brief account. Sible Hedingham is a small parish, chiefly distinguished for producing some of the best Essex hops. It contains a village known by the same name as the parish, the trade of which is chiefly dependent on agricultural pursuits, in purchasing the produce of the neighbouring grounds, and providing various necessaries for the farmers and their labourers. The parish is divided into six manors, the records of which ascend to an early period in the history of England; indeed the same may be said of most of the manors of Essex, for the situation of the county at the southeast corner of England, caused it to be one of the early points of attack, in the various invasions of the Romans, the Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans, and the particular parts taken by the resident gentry on these several occasions considerably influenced the possessorship of the estates. One of the manors in Sible Hedingham, that of Preyers, was in the possession of seventeen freemen previous to the Norman Conquest: it then passed to the De Veres, earls of Oxford, and subsequently to other families. Another manor was in the possession of a freeman in the time of Edward the Confessor. The other manors are not traced to so early a date. The church of Sible Hedingham is a handsome and spacious building, provided with a nave, north and south aisles, and a square tower containing five bells. The nave and the aisles are But by far the most important establishment or separated by plain massive pillars, supporting gothic building ever existing in this parish, the castle-to arches. The church is believed to have been built about which indeed the parish owes its name-remains to the time of Edward the Third.-The whole parish i be described. This ancient edifice stands on an emi

There was formerly a nunnery in this parish, for black veiled nuns of the Benedictine order, founded by the Earl and Countess of Oxford, about seven or eight centuries ago, the countess herself being the first prioress. The establishment continued under the patronage of this family till its dissolution; part of the buildings have since been converted into a farmhouse. There was also in early times an hospital, founded by one of the Earls of Oxford in the time of Henry the Third, for the aid of poor, distressed, and impotent persons, and also, in accordance with the manners of the times, for the offering up of prayers for the souls of the founder, his wife, their ancestors, and their heirs. It had a chapel, and several chaplains to perform Divine service, and a cemetery also belonged to it.

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