The members of the Volksraads, who brought on the war by their ultimatum, were among the first in the field, and foremost in attacking the soldiers of their enemy.
Students in European universities, who hastened home when war-clouds were gathering, went shoulder to shoulder into battle with the backwoodsman, the Boer takhaar.

There was no pride among them; no class distinction which prevented a farmer from speaking to a millionaire.

A graduate of Cambridge had as his boon companion for five months a farmer who thought the earth a square, and imagined the United States to be a political division of Australia.
[Illustration: BOERS WATCHING THE FIGHT AT DUNDEE] The Boer who was bred in a city or town good-naturedly referred to his country cousin as a "takhaar"-- a man with grizzly beard and unkempt hair.
It was a good descriptive term, and the takhaar was not offended when it was applied to him.

The takhaar was the modern type of the old voortrekker Boer who, almost a hundred years ago, trekked north from Cape Colony, and after overcoming thousands of difficulties settled in the present Boer country.

He was a religious, big-hearted countryman of the kind who would suspect a stranger until he proved himself worthy of trust.