s have
continued to be maintained with the successive generations up to now.

Those who joined in the exodus north of the Orange River in 1835 and the
years following comprised the most indomitable and best endowed of that
stalwart race. Twenty years of a nomadic life after that and until they
got somewhat settled down served to weed out the weaklings among them;
since then their mode of life accorded well to keep up the highest
physical standard, not pampered with many comforts, inured to hardships
and to out-of-door exercise, with a diet consisting very largely of meat
and venison, coupled with energetic exercise of mind and body (the women
sharing in the less arduous duties). All this constituted a regimen and
training which did not fail to keep the people in a constant condition
of high efficiency and equipoise for the performance of tasks and for
surmounting difficulties needing more than usual strength, endurance,
and fortitude.

The rough labour all over South Africa is done mostly by Kaffirs and
other coloured people. A Boer farmer will have from two to ten or more
Kaffirs (men and women) employed for out-of-door work and for domestic
drudgery. Often absent from home on hunting trips and sometimes on
commando, the men entrust their work on such occasions (as is now the
case during the present war) to the care of their wives and daughters,
assisted by some younger sons, if the family includes any, or else
simply with the aid of Kaffir servants. Sometimes they are without any
such help, when they take a pride in doing it alone.

Girls as well as boys learn to ride on horseback when quite young. It is
quite a usual thing to see women riding astride fashion, collecting
sheep and cattle, or driving their horse carts and spiders (carriages),
unattended by males, over distances of over twenty and thirty
miles--women spanning in ox-teams to their travelling wagons, driving
them with long whips on journeys occupying one or more days. During the
Kaffir wars the Boers used to trek (travel) in bodies with their wagons,
which would serve to form a laager or fort, their families and
belongings being placed in the centre. During an attack the women would
attend to the men's wants, reload their rifles, and even take a more
active part in repelling the enemy, many of them being also crack shots.
The above-stated efficient and hardy habits with men and women apply
more to the people in the two Republics, and particularly so to