Abdul First Bought Himself, And
Then His Wife Betsy, Whose 'missus' Generously Threw In Her Bed-
Ridden Mother.
He is a fine handsome old man, and has confided to
me that 5,000 pounds would not buy what he is worth now.
I have
also read the letters written by his, son, young Abdul Rachman, now
a student at Cairo, who has been away five years - four at Mecca.
The young theologian writes to his 'hoog eerbare moeder' a fond
request for money, and promises to return soon. I am invited to
the feast wherewith he will be welcomed. Old Abdul Jemaalee thinks
it will divert my mind, and prove to me that Allah will take me
home safe to my children, about whom he and his wife asked many
questions. Moreover, he compelled me to drink herb tea, compounded
by a Malay doctor for my cough. I declined at first, and the poor
old man looked hurt, gravely assured me that it was not true that
Malays always poisoned Christians, and drank some himself.
Thereupon I was obliged, of course, to drink up the rest; it
certainly did me good, and I have drunk it since with good effect;
it is intensely bitter and rather sticky. The white servants and
the Dutch landlady where I lodge shake their heads ominously, and
hope it mayn't poison me a year hence. 'Them nasty Malays can make
it work months after you take it.' They also possess the evil eye,
and a talent for love potions. As the men are very handsome and
neat, I incline to believe that part of it.
Rathfelder's Halfway House, 6th November. - I drove out here
yesterday in Captain T-'s drag, which he kindly brought into
Capetown for me. He and his wife and children came for a change of
air for whooping cough, and advised me to come too, as my cough
continues, though less troublesome. It is a lovely spot, six miles
from Constantia, ten from Capetown, and twelve from Simon's Bay. I
intend to stay here a little while, and then to go to Kalk Bay, six
miles from hence. This inn was excellent, I hear, 'in the old
Dutch times'. Now it is kept by a young Englishman, Cape-born, and
his wife, and is dirty and disorderly. I pay twelve shillings a
day for S- and self, without a sitting-room, and my bed is a straw
paillasse; but the food is plentiful, and not very bad. That is
the cheapest rate of living possible here, and every trifle costs
double what it would in England, except wine, which is very fair at
fivepence a bottle - a kind of hock. The landlord pays 1 pound a
day rent for this house, which is the great resort of the Capetown
people for Sundays, and for change of air, &c. - a rude kind of
Richmond. His cook gets 3 pounds 10s. a month, besides food for
himself and wife, and beer and sugar.
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