Siege and heavy guns " . . . . . 20




BOER CONSERVATISM


Rudyard Kipling truly said "the Boers are the most conservative people
on earth." Habits and views which had prevailed two hundred years ago
with their forefathers are still tenaciously preserved by them. We see
this in matters of language, religion, in certain antipathies, and even
in attire. They are justly famed for hospitality, not only amongst
themselves, but also towards strangers, and a very pleasing trait, no
doubt handed down from the seigneurial Huguenots, is the genial
politeness which a stranger will receive in an otherwise wholly
uncultured Boer family.

On his farm the Boer is chief and supreme after the patriarchal
fashion--no thought of tolerating an equal or a rival in authority.
Collectively also, as in governmental representation, he is extremely
averse to the introduction of any foreign element; such a factor would
meet with his undisguised suspicion and jealousy. It must be Boer
supremacy, and to this strangers must submit; the Boers to figure as
the only caste or military aristocracy privileged to carry arms, very
much like the Samouris nobles of Japan, who from of old until recently
had represented the feudal estate, and had made quite a famous cult of
personal bravery, chivalry and devotion to their Mikado and for their
independent caste. Long intercourse and inter-marriage with a Boer
family would ultimately remove the barrier. With such rooted