January knee again thus railed, they reft their left elbow, V v s J while with the hand on the fame fide, they fupport their chin, or one of their cheeks, at the. fame time , holding their pipes in their mouths. Their right hand is then at liberty to grafp the fmall of their left leg with, or elfe to convey now and then to their mouth a cooling draught of tea. Let the reader reprefent to himfelf feveral people fitting together in this pofture, and he will readily conceive what an elegant figure they would make in a group. I never faw any of the fair fex, however, in a pofture of this kind. Among a fet of beings fo entirely devoted to their eafe, one might naturally expect to meet with a variety o f the moft commodious eafy chairs and fofas; but the truth is, that they find it much more commodious to avoid the trouble o f inventing and making them. I remarked as a very lingular circumftance, that a wealthy farmer at Agtsr Bruntjes-boogte, who had plenty o f timber to fell, had neverthelefs only a ricketty elbow-chair in his houfe, and a few fcanty ftools of the moft fimple con- itrucStion, made of a fingle board, with four rough-hewn ill-ihapen legs. What, however, was ftill more lingular was, that notwithftanding that one of thefe ftools had loft a leg, yet it was frequently made ufe o f to the endangering of the perfon’s limbs who fat upon it, without either the mailer of the houfe or any of his three fons, who were otherwife all alert enough at the chafe,, having ever. once, ‘thought o f mending it. Nor did the inhabitants o f this -place exhibit much lefs fimplicity and moderation, or to< fpeak more properly, llovenlinefs and penury in their dnels -than in their furniture; neither of which, therefore, were. in in any wife correfpondent to the large flocks and herds >77ff- J x 0 - January. polfelfed by thefe graziers, and the plentiful tablés they - o could afford to keep in confequence o f thefe pofiefiions. The diftance at which they are frorn the Gape, may, indeed,. be feme excufe for their having no other earthenware or china in their houfes, but what was cracked or broken ; but this, methinks, lhould not prevent them from being in poiftfiion of more than one or two old pewter pots, and feme few plates of the fame metal ;.: fo that two people are frequently obliged to eat out o f one dilh, ufing it befides for every different article o f food that comes upon table. Each gueft muft bring his knife with him, and they frequently make ufe of their fingers inftead o f forks. The moft wealthy farmer here is cohfidered as being well drefled in a jacket of home-made cloth, or lomething of the kind made of any other coarfe cloth, bréeches o f undrefled leather, woollen llockings, a ftriped waiftcoat, a cotton handkerchief about his neck, a coarfe callico ihirt, Hottentot field-Aloes, or elfe leathern ihoes, with brafs buckles, and a coarfe hat. Indeed it is not in drefs* but in the number and thriving condition o f their cattle, and chiefly in the ftoutnefs o f their draught-oxen, that thefe peafants vie with each other. It is likewife by activity and manly actions, and by other qualities, that fender a man fit for thé married ftate, and the fearing o f a family, that the youth chiefly obtain the efteem of the fair fex ; none of whom likewife were ever known, for the fake of vying with each other in point o f drefs, to have endangered either their huf- band’s property or their own virtue. A plain clofe cap, and a coarfecotton gown, virtue arid good houfewifery, are look- 4 ed
27f 72-2
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