He should pray all the time she was on the sea.' Some pious
Christians here would expect such horrors to sink the ship. I
can't think why Mussulmans are always gentlemen; the Malay coolies
have a grave courtesy which contrasts most strikingly with both
European vulgarity and negro jollity. It is very curious, for they
only speak Dutch, and know nothing of oriental manners. I fear I
shall not see the Walkers again. Simon's Bay is too far to go and
come in a day, as one cannot go out before ten or eleven, and must
be in by five or half-past. Those hours are gloriously bright and
hot, but morning and night are cold.
I am so happy in the thought of sailing now so very soon and seeing
you all again, that I can settle to nothing for five minutes. I
now feel how anxious and uneasy I have been, and how I shall
rejoice to get home. I shall leave a letter for A-, to go in
April, and tell him and you what ship I am in. I shall choose the
SLOWEST, so as not to reach England and face the Channel before
June, if possible. So don't be alarmed if I do not arrive till
late in June. Till then good-bye, and God bless you, dearest
mother - Auf frohes Wiedersehn.
LETTER XII
Capetown, Sunday, March 23d.
It has been a REAL hot day, and threatened an earthquake and a
thunderstorm; but nothing has come of it beyond sheet lightning to-
night, which is splendid over the bay, and looks as if repeated in
a grand bush-fire on the hills opposite. The sunset was glorious.
That rarest of insects, the praying mantis, has just dropped upon
my paper. I am thankful that, not being an entomologist, I am
dispensed from the sacred duty of impaling the lovely green
creature who sits there, looking quite wise and human. Fussy
little brown beetles, as big as two lady-birds, keep flying into my
eyes, and the musquitoes are rejoicing loudly in the prospect of a
feast. You will understand by this that both windows are wide open
into the great verandah, - very unusual in this land of cold nights.
April 4th. - I have been trying in vain to get a passage home. The
Camperdown has not come. In short, I am waiting for a chance
vessel, and shall pack up now and be ready to go on board at a
day's notice.
I went on the last evening of Ramadan to the Mosque, having heard
there was a grand 'function'; but there were only little boys lying
about on the floor, some on their stomachs, some on their backs,
higgledy-piggledy (if it be not profane to apply the phrase to
young Islam), all shouting their prayers a tue tete.
