2. Eoughing It
I HAD bought several erven, of land in Alale, consisting of dense bush, mostly very thorny mimosa. Part of the land lay on the banks of a splendid lagoon of the Ban river.
A Mend and myself decided to settle down on this new land and cultivate it. So, having built a tent, we moved with it and our belongings to Alale.
The bush was so thick that three mimosas had to be cut down before we could pitch our tent It was a very hot day, and not being used to the work, we were not at all sorry when our first day was over. We awoke next morning to find the canvas heavy with the night's dew, aifd three snakes under our beds : one was a beautiful garter-snake, the others harmless (?) ground-snakes. During the following days we killed nine more in the same place.
There is something very exhilarating in tent life, with only a canvas for privacy, through which comes both fresh air and light, and it must be admitted rain, too, sometimes. We did all our own household work, and usually enjoyed it. Washing and cooking were conducted (often under difficulties) out of doors. When the sun was very hot our soap would melt, and more than three inches of candle would not stand up straight. In rainy weather we had cold fare, for we could not light our fire. But in spite of all drawbacks we throve wonderfully, with unlimited fresh air and exercise.
Our first care was to grub up the bush and throw the thorny branches into fences as a protection for the land ; our next to dig and plant.
At first we had to contend with almost innumerable enemies. These ranged from natives - who took little care to conceal their depredations - to the wasps who laid their eggs in our fruits, the maggots of which totally destroyed a great deal of our produce. In fact, our crops were a complete failure for the first year or two. The dry-bush fence that we had thrown up attracted thousands of field mice. These are larger than English mice, and are striped down the back with yellowish lines. They eat nearly everything - cloth, canvas, grain or potatoes- and soon caused us a great deal of trouble.
African cows have always given us trouble. They are great connoisseurs, but during long droughts are not able to satisfy their appetites with green forage, at such times eating dry sticks or herbage and even paper. When they see a dainty morsel, it needs a very strong fence to keep them from it. My garden was always green and well watered, and the cows used to look over the fence with longing eyes, until they learned one day how to open the gate with their horns. After that they would come in the early mornings before we were up, and help themselves to the best cauliflowers and cabbages.
One of our greatest pests was the maisont. This animal is about the size of a small cat. and Ixas a bushy tail; the skin is prettily striped with yellow, or white and dark brown. The maisonts are difficult to kill, being very shy and tough. They have another protection against attack in a liquid which they squirt over their own skins or over their pursuers. This liquid has an exceedingly foul smell, which clings to everything it touches for months; even dogs dislike it so much that they often refuse to attack a maisont. These little animals will turn up a whole patch of newly-planted seedlings, in search of certain fat grubs, which were very plentiful in the garden at first.
We include otters amongst our enemies. I used to mistake them for natives until I learnt better, as they whistle to each other so much like human beings. The damage they did was of a playful kind. They seemed to delight in turning somersaults over the orange-trees, at least that is what it often looked like. One of my orange-trees was nearly ruined in this way; most of the branches were broken, and what was left was smeared with mud up to the top.
In those earlier days the native dogs would sometimes drive stray ostriches over our primitive fences, when there would follow an exciting chase up and down the garden, over beds, or whatever came in the way. Our small dog, a sort of bull terrier, took a huge delight in these chases. He was too small for the ostriches to kick, and would make them quite furious. One of these infuriated birds ran at me one day, and I only just managed to keep it off with a thorny branch. Ostriches are senseless birds, and there are many stories told of their stupidity. We had to carry one bird out of our garden, for it had settled itself down under a bush and would not be persuaded to go in any other way.
While on the subject of ostriches, I must relate an incident which occurred just outside this township. The youth of Cape Colony are much like the youth of every other country in the world, in that they delight in going to places where they know they are especially not wanted. We had a small youth there, who was no exception to the rule. Now, when ostriches are breeding, it is highly advisable to leave them alone, for at such times they are very jealous of intrusion, and farmers for that reason usually put them in separate " camps." The abovementioned youth knew this perfectly well, and forthwith began to stroll about a "camp," where a happy pair of ostriches were sitting, that is, the one was sitting while the other, as usual, was doing "sentry-go" in front of the nest. When the sentry ostrich saw the youth (whom we will call Tom) strolling up, he, like a senseless ostrich, took oflFence at the intrusion and gave chase. Now Tom knew that when an ostrich meant business, a rapid retreat was the best resource, so he promptly made for cover ; but, unfortunately, there was no sufficient cover for him within reach, so he made for an isolated mimosa bush. Then began an exciting chase. Tom went round and round the mimosa bush, and the ostrich after him. But the ostrich has long legs, which are a disadvantage in a chase round so small a circle, and presently he slipped and fell. This was Tom's opportunity, and in a great fright he jumped into the middle of the mimosa bush. The ostrich was even more firightened by its fall, and regaining its legs, ran away; upon which Tom jumped out of the mimosa bush and ran his hardest in the opposite direction. This youth will not be likely to interfere with broody ostriches again.
But to return to our garden. At first the ground seemed to be sown with large and small bulbs. We turned some up with nearly every spadeful of earth. Many bulbs were worthy of a place in any garden, others were not beautiful. Most numerous amongst them was the tulp, a bulb bearing a flower of a beautiful French blue in colour and iris-shaped. Cattle living in districts where tulp grows refuse to eat it, but cattle coming from another district, where there is no tulp, cannot distinguish it from the herbage round, and eating it causes death to them. Around Alale the lower "bush" is, at the proper season of the year, quite blue with it.
Sometimes the wild bush was very beautiful, specially when there was a green coating of grass. I think that the early morning, after a heavy night's mist, was the best time to enjoy it. Then the slanting rays of the sun threw long shadows over the bright green of the grass, out of which stood the tulp, with its lovely blue petals, and many other African gems. Every leaf of the "bush" and each blade of grass seemed to be laden with crystal dew-drops, which the birds, as they moved twittering amongst the bushes, shook off like showers of jewels. At such times the air was so clear and fresh that it quite compensated for the heat of the day later on.
On the hottest days of summer large and small swarms of bees passed over us, many of them making hives of the hollow tree-trunks along the river banks. Our white tent seemed to have a special attraction for them, and we nearly always found some flying round it. The people in the district raided the hives for the sake of the honey, regardless of swollen faces and hands, caused by the stings of the bees whose honey they had rifled. Once a neighbour disturbed a very large hive, carelessly breaking the honeycombs; the result was that the bees stung every member of his family, as well as many other people living in the neighbourhood.
As we were able to put up better fences, and get the ground into better condition, our enemies decreased. But there will always be the wasps to lay their eggs in the fruit, the drought, the hot winds, the locusts, and many other pests left to trouble dwellers.