There is one
Malay tailor here, but he is obliged to be a Christian at Caledon,
though Choslullah told me with a grin, he was a very good Malay
when he went to Capetown.
He did not seem much shocked at this
double religion, staunch Mussulman as he was himself. I suppose
the blacks 'up country' are what Dutch slavery made them - mere
animals - cunning and sulky. The real Hottentot is extinct, I
believe, in the Colony; what one now sees are all 'Bastaards', the
Dutch name for their own descendants by Hottentot women. These
mongrel Hottentots, who do all the work, are an affliction to
behold - debased and SHRIVELLED with drink, and drunk all day long;
sullen wretched creatures - so unlike the bright Malays and cheery
pleasant blacks and browns of Capetown, who never pass you without
a kind word and sunny smile or broad African grin, SELON their
colour and shape of face. I look back fondly to the gracious soft-
looking Malagasse woman who used to give me a chair under the big
tree near Rathfelders, and a cup of 'bosjesthee' (herb tea), and
talk so prettily in her soft voice; - it is such a contrast to these
poor animals, who glower at one quite unpleasantly. All the hovels
I was in at Capetown were very fairly clean, and I went into
numbers. They almost all contained a handsome bed, with, at least,
eight pillows. If you only look at the door with a friendly
glance, you are implored to come in and sit down, and usually
offered a 'coppj' (cup) of herb tea, which they are quite grateful
to one for drinking.
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