Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/264

 206 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. appointed for the nachtmaal, or "sacrament," they assemble in crowds on the market- place adjoining the church. Keligious administrations of all kinds are performwl in the narrow building ; the married folk take the communion, the betrothed receive a blessing on their nuptials, the young people are enrolled members of the congregation, the children are baptised. A brisk business is plied in the sur- rounding booths : outstanding accounts are settled between debtor and creditor ; owners of live stock and horse-dealers drive sharp bargains. Then the place is gradually deserted, the turmoil subsides, the throng melts away, each family group takes its departure, returning to the solitude and the silence of the wilderness. Nevertheless a social transformation is slowly taking place under the inevit- able change in the outward conditions. The groat domains tend naturally to be broken u[), and the IJoers thus becoming more numerous are drawn closer toge- ther. All the young people get married, all the women have several children, and the land has to bo further divided. Many great owners already grumble at their estates, reduced to one-half or a fourth of their former extent, although a thousandth part of what remains were still sufficient to support a family if pro- perly tilled. On the other hand come the foreign immigrants, and although they may not always immediately find available lands on which to settle, in the long run a certain number of estates either change hands in the lump or are parcelled cut in smaller allotments. It also frequently happens that the new purchasers are either Europeans by birth, or else British or English-speaking colonials. Scarcely an instance occurs of any genuine Boers settling in the towns or villages as artisans or traders. These pursuits are entirely monopolised by the English and Germans, many of whom thus growing richer than the Dutch landowners of the surrounding districts are able to buy up large portions of their domains. In this way the territorial aristocracy gradually absorbs elements distinct from the original Boer clas^. Of all the white intruders, the Dutch Afrikanders show themselves, as a rule, most hostile to their own kinsmen, the Netherlanders of the mother country. At a distance the two races have a certain fellow-feeling for each other, as fully attested by contemporary literature ; but when' brought close together the memory of their common origin gives place to a strange sentiment of aversion. The Boer is extremely sensitive, hence is irritated at the civilised Hollanders, who smile at his rude African customs, and who reply, with apparent ostentation, in a pure language to the corrupt jargon spoken by the peasantry on the banks of the Vaal or Limpopo, TlIK xVliOltlGINES OF TkAXSVAAL In thp southern districts the aborigines have no longer preserved their tribal organisation, and, as in the Orange Free State, are tolerated only in the capacity of servants or day labourers. But in the western, northern, and north-eastern provinces they are still constituted in distinct political and social groups. Such are the Ba-Rolongs, the Ba-Tlapis, the Ba-Katlas, the Ba-Mapelas, the Ba-Hlokoas, Ba-Vendas, and Ba-Soetlas, all of whom belong to the great Basuto (Ba-Suto)