prepare and serve his meals for him. He was under no discipline whatever,
and he could be his own master at all times. He generally had his sons or
brothers with him in the same laager, and to a Boer there was always much
joy in this. He could go on picket duty and have a brush with the enemy
whenever he felt inclined to do so, or he could remain in his laager and
never have a glimpse of the enemy. Every two months he was entitled to a
ten days' leave of absence to visit his home, and at other times during
the first five months of the war, his wife and children were allowed to
visit him in his laager. If he was stationed along the northern or western
frontiers of the Transvaal he was in the game country, and he was able to
go on buck-shooting expeditions as frequently as he cared. He was not
compelled to rise at a certain hour in the morning, and he could go to bed
whenever he wished. There was no drill, no roll-calls, nor any of the
thousands of petty details which the soldiers of even the Portuguese army
are compelled to perform. As a result of a special law there was no work
on Sundays or Church-holidays unless the enemy brought it about, and then,
if he was a stickler for the observance of the Sabbath, he was not
compelled to move a muscle. The Boer burgher could eat, sleep, or fight
whenever he wished, and inasmuch as he was a law unto himself, there was
no one who could compel him to change his habits. It was an ideal
idle-man's mode of living and the foreign volunteers who had leaves of
absence from their own armies made the most of their holiday, but in that
respect they did not surpass their companion, the Boer burgher.

The most conspicuous feature of the Boer forces was the equality of the
officers and the men, and the entire absence of any assumption of
superiority by the leaders of the burghers. None of the generals or
commandants wore any uniform of a distinctive type, and it was one of the
most difficult problems to distinguish an officer from the burghers. All
the officers, from the Commandant-General down to the corporal, carried