"Will there be any more funerals today?" was asked of a native who had just filled in a grave.
"Yes, baas. Two wagons coming now," he answered, pointing to the road.
The natives are buried in a burlap sack, drawn tight and sewed, reducing the natural size of the body considerably. Two corpses rest on the bottom of a grave. Six inches of dirt cover these, when two more of the sacked bodies are lowered, making four in one grave.
The city of Johannesburg receive $7 for every kafir buried in Brixton graveyard—$28 for a grave containing the bodies of four natives. The owners of the mines at which the natives had worked must pay this burial charge. Deaths of natives are caused more by accidents in mines than from phthisis, as kafirs will not, as a rule, work more than six months in the year.
At the end of Brixton graveyard, where Europeans are buried, could be seen, from a distance, undertakers in long coats and high hats; hearses, ornamented with white or black cockades, drawn by horses of the same color; clergymen, their heads bowed and reading from books, with groups of veiled people huddled in small areas—putting people underground and the circumstances attending these ceremonies are of very frequent occurrence in Johannesburg.
The grave-diggers have no slack seasons; they are busy the year round, which accounted for so many open graves. As they were sure to be needed, it was better to be ahead of the demand than crowded with orders.
"Don't Expectorate!" is the cautionary sign confronting one at almost every turn in the Gold City. Where the "Don't Spit!" sign appears frequently one knows he has reached a place where lung trouble is prevalent.
Paved streets in some of the South African cities has not been considered so much of a municipal duty as in other parts of the world. The soil being hard, the rain, coming in showers, flows off as it does on paved streets. As the sun shines 365 days in the year on the high veld, the ground is dry in a short time after a shower has passed.
Walking in the streets instead of on the walks is a local custom one quickly notices. In Johannesburg good, wide walks may be practically free of people though the street space is occupied by pedestrians from curb to curb.
"Joburg" is the local term used almost exclusively by South Africans when speaking of Johannesburg. When one hears another say "Johannesburg" it is a pretty sure sign that he is a stranger in "Darkest Africa."