[21]. Kafir pox, a varicelloid disease, believed to attack only natives, also known as “Watcht en beitje” pock (Dutch, “wait a bit”), as it delayed them on their road.
[22]. An Act to legalize gambling by this means came before the legislative council this year (1887) but was rejected. The arguments “for and against” were very funny. One Dutch legislator, when the subject was under debate, brought forward as a clinching argument that “when Jonah was on board a vessel on his way to Nineveh it was decided by a totalisator that he should be thrown overboard,” while another (who had a large open Bible before him) referred to the Revelations, where, he said, it was pointed out that “roovers, woekeraars, and spelers,” could not enter the kingdom of heaven. He said God’s Holy Word did not justify gambling, and where could they get a better authority than the Bible? The name “totalisator” was in itself so big a word to pronounce that he often wondered that people’s tongues did not twist in pronouncing it (loud laughter).
[23]. It may be interesting to my readers to mention that “Vaal” means dun or mud color, the tint of the river, especially noticeable during flushes, when so much clay from the banks is held in suspension, though at no period has the stream the crystal clearness of the Isis or the Cam. The inhabitants of the banks are facetiously nicknamed Vaal penses, in meaning much the same as “yellow bellies,” the designation applied with rustic humor to the dwellers on the fens in Lincolnshire by the agricultural population of the surrounding districts.
[24]. August 1886. Since then many more amalgamations of companies have taken place.
[25]. The recent extension of the railway to Kimberley has of course much reduced the price of fuel, though it is even at this day so high that the home manufacturers or householders would shudder to contemplate paying half the price.
[26]. Vulgarly called carbon by the diggers.
[27]. Diamondiferous soil.
[28]. This was written before the discovery of the Cape diamond fields.
[29]. The French and Central companies of the Kimberley mine have sunk shafts comparatively recently about 620 feet deep (in 1886), and are still in this rock. It is of various textures and colors, and contains agates, jasper, calcite, iron pyrites and various other minerals.
[30]. Resembling charcoal in its mineral condition.