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.
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