In dress the Boer is almost universally
slovenly, his clothes hang about him stained and discoloured by long
usage. In the majority of cases he is altogether without education, and
very many Boers are scarcely able to sign their names. Most of them wear
beards and long unkempt hair. But in point of physique they are fine
men, tall and powerfully, though loosely, built, but capable of standing
great fatigue if necessary, although averse to all exercise save on
horseback. All are taught to shoot from boyhood, and even the women in
the country districts are trained in the use of firearms, for it is not
so long since they lived in dread of incursions by the Zulus and Swazis.
There was no attempt whatever at uniformity of dress. Most of the men
wore high riding boots. Some of the young men from the towns were in
tweed suits, the vast majority wore either shooting jackets or long
loose coats; some were in straw hats, but the elder men all wore large
felt hats with wide brims. They were all, however, similarly armed with
rifles of the best and most modern construction. Their general
appearance was that of a large band of farmers of the roughest type and
wholly without regard for their personal appearance.
It was fully an hour before the train moved again.
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