134 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
stretches
of pasture land which the Dutch called veld, the scenes of their
marches were much more lively and cheery. Little farmhouses dotted the
plains and valleys, rude cottages of clay-plastered stones or rough
timbers, but hospitable with fires blazing on open hearths, big iron
pots hanging from cranes and simmering with stews, and broad-faced,
beaming vrouws and clusters of chunky boys and girls greeted the
arrival of an ox-wagon from the coast as a welcome splash in the
stagnant stream of their daily life.1
At
some of the halting places on the banks of streams, or where plentiful
water was stored in natural pans or artificial ponds, the extraordinary
fertility of the irrigated soil of South Africa was plainly to be seen
in luxuriant gardens, with brilliant flower-beds and heavy-laden fruit
trees and vines. Here figs, pomegranates, oranges, lemons, and grapes
ripened side by side, and hung more tempting than apples of Eden in the
sight of the thirsting, sunburnt, dust-choked men who had plodded so
far over the parched karroos. They stretched their cramped legs and
aching backs in the grateful shade of spreading branches, and watched
with half-shut eyes the white flocks nibbling on the pasture land, and
the black and red cattle scattered as far as the eye could see over the
veld. Tame ostriches stalked fearlessly about them, often clustering
like hens at the door of the farmhouse to pick up a mess of grain or
meal, apparently heedless of any approach, but always alert and likely
to resent any familiarity from a stranger with a kick as sharp and
staggering as any ever dealt by a mule's hind leg.
The
interior of the homes in these oases was not so inviting, for the
rooms, at best, were small and bare to the eye of a townsman. But some
were comparatively neatly kept, with smoothly cemented floors,
cupboards of quaintly figured china and earthenware, hangings and rugs
of leopard, fox, jackal, and antelope skins and brackets of curving
horns loaded with hunting arms and garnished with ostrich feathers.
For the guests
1
" Among the Diamonds," 1870-187 I. "The Diamond Diggings of South
Africa," Payton, 1872. " South Africa Diamond Fields," Morton, 1876.
