Abstaining from all manual labour, they devote themselves to their properties, sometimes as much as 5,000 to 6,000 acres in extent, and to the breeding of cattle and horses.

Beyond this, their object in life is hunting lion and big game.

_The Boer is essentially a man of war and politics._" Here we have the true Boer, and not the idyllic "small farmer" pictured to us by a contributor to _Le Temps_.

He is essentially the "man of war and politics," the counterpart of an Arab chief, the sole difference being that the Boer is not a polygamist and has no tribe under him; on the contrary, the Boers swarm off in isolated groups or families.

Their conception of life is, however, the same.