They Are Eminently Gregarious
In Their Eating; And, As They Despise Any One Who Eats Alone,
I Always Poured Out
Two cups of coffee at my own meals, so that the chief,
or some one of the principal men, might
Partake along with me.
They all soon become very fond of coffee; and, indeed, some of the tribes
attribute greater fecundity to the daily use of this beverage.
They were all well acquainted with the sugar-cane, as they cultivate it
in the Barotse country, but knew nothing of the method of extracting
the sugar from it. They use the cane only for chewing. Sekeletu,
relishing the sweet coffee and biscuits, of which I then had a store,
said "he knew my heart loved him by finding his own heart warming to my food."
He had been visited during my absence at the Cape by some traders and Griquas,
and "their coffee did not taste half so nice as mine, because they loved
his ivory and not himself." This was certainly an original mode
of discerning character.
Sekeletu and I had each a little gipsy-tent in which to sleep.
The Makololo huts are generally clean, while those of the Makalaka
are infested with vermin. The cleanliness of the former
is owing to the habit of frequently smearing the floors with a plaster
composed of cowdung and earth. If we slept in the tent in some villages,
the mice ran over our faces and disturbed our sleep, or hungry prowling dogs
would eat our shoes and leave only the soles. When they were guilty
of this and other misdemeanors, we got the loan of a hut.
The best sort of Makololo huts consist of three circular walls,
with small holes as doors, each similar to that in a dog-house;
and it is necessary to bend down the body to get in, even when on all-fours.
The roof is formed of reeds or straight sticks, in shape
like a Chinaman's hat, bound firmly together with circular bands,
which are lashed with the strong inner bark of the mimosa-tree.
When all prepared except the thatch, it is lifted on to the circular wall,
the rim resting on a circle of poles, between each of which
the third wall is built. The roof is thatched with fine grass,
and sewed with the same material as the lashings; and, as it projects
far beyond the walls, and reaches within four feet of the ground,
the shade is the best to be found in the country. These huts are very cool
in the hottest day, but are close and deficient in ventilation by night.
The bed is a mat made of rushes sewn together with twine;
the hip-bone soon becomes sore on the hard flat surface, as we are not allowed
to make a hole in the floor to receive the prominent part called trochanter
by anatomists, as we do when sleeping on grass or sand.
Our course at this time led us to a part above Sesheke, called Katonga,
where there is a village belonging to a Bashubia man named Sekhosi -
latitude 17d 29' 13", longitude 24d 33'.
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