She Could Recognise An
'Anstandigkeit' Not Of Berlin.
I need not say that the Germans are
generally liked by the coloured people.
Choslullah was astonished
and Pleased at my talking German; he evidently had a preference for
Germans, and put up, wherever he could, at German inns and
'publics'.
I went on to bid Mrs. Wodehouse good-bye. We talked of our dear
old Cornish friends. The Governor and Mrs. Wodehouse have been
very kind to me. I dined there twice; last time, with all the dear
good Walkers. I missed seeing the opening of the colonial
parliament by a mistake about a ticket, which I am sorry for.
If I could have dreamed of waiting here so long, I would have run
up to Algoa Bay or East London by sea, and had a glimpse of
Caffreland. Capetown makes me very languid - there is something
depressing in the air - but my cough is much better. I can't walk
here without feeling knocked-up; and cab-hire is so dear; and
somehow, nothing is worth while, when one is waiting from day to
day. So I have spent more money than when I was most amused, in
being bored.
Mr. J- drove me to the Capetown races, at Green Point, on Friday.
As races, they were nichts, but a queer-looking little Cape
farmer's horse, ridden by a Hottentot, beat the English crack
racer, ridden by a first-rate English jockey, in an unaccountable
way, twice over. The Malays are passionately fond of horse-racing,
and the crowd was fully half Malay: there were dozens of carts
crowded with the bright-eyed women, in petticoats of every most
brilliant colour, white muslin jackets, and gold daggers in their
great coils of shining black hair. All most 'anstandig', as they
always are. Their pleasure is driving about en famille; the men
have no separate amusements. Every spare corner in the cart is
filled by the little soft round faces of the intelligent-looking
quiet children, who seem amused and happy, and never make a noise
or have the fidgets. I cannot make out why they are so well
behaved. It favours A-'s theory of the expediency of utter
spoiling, for one never hears any educational process going on.
Tiny Mohammed never spoke but when he was spoken to, and was always
happy and alert. I observed that his uncle spoke to him like a
grown man, and never ordered him about, or rebuked him in the
least. I like to go up the hill and meet the black women coming
home in troops from the washing place, most of them with a fat
black baby hanging to their backs asleep, and a few rather older
trotting alongside, and if small, holding on by the mother's gown.
She, poor soul, carries a bundle on her head, which few men could
lift. If I admire the babies, the poor women are enchanted; - du
reste, if you look at blacks of any age or sex, they MUST grin and
nod, as a good-natured dog must wag his tail; they can't help it.
The blacks here (except a very few Caffres) are from the
Mozambique - a short, thick-set, ugly race, with wool in huge
masses; but here and there one sees a very pretty face among the
women.
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