akwains the breast is his perquisite. After the
oxen are cut up, the different joints are placed before Sekeletu, and he
apportions them among the gentlemen of the party. The whole is rapidly
divided by their attendants, cut into long strips, and so many of these
are thrown into the fires at once that they are nearly put out. Half
broiled and burning hot, the meat is quickly handed round; every one
gets a mouthful, but no one except the chief has time to masticate. It
is not the enjoyment of eating they aim at, but to get as much of the
food into the stomach as possible during the short time the others are
cramming as well as themselves, for no one can eat more than a mouthful
after the others have finished. 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 sti