Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/353

 people generally take their meals sitting on straw or rush mats, sometimes inside the huts, and sometimes just in front of the entrance. All solid food is taken up with the fingers, but anything of a semi-fluid character is conveyed to the mouth by means of wooden spoons.

There is little to add to my previous account of the royal meals. The queens and white men invited to breakfast sat facing the east, but at supper, which was nearly always taken in the open air, they had their seats always placed on the king’s left hand. The king sipped the goblet of kaffir-corn beer before passing it first to the favourite wife, and then to the other lady-guests, and if no ladies were present, it was handed on to the court cfficials at once. Besides the kaffir-corn beer, honey-beer was occasionally introduced at supper, and the cup-bearer invariably tasted it before offering it to the king. As the whole of the honey in the country belongs to the crown, the beverage made from it is only consumed at court; and on occasions of festivity it is not passed beyond the circle of the royal family and certain distinguished guests, except to those from whom the king had already asked or was about to ask a favour. The honey is not purified for its preparation, but the beer is made by simply pouring water on to the honey-comb thrown into gourd-shells, and left to stand for about twelve hours in the sun.

After the 24th I was able to take more regular exercise, and went several times into the town with the object of exchanging my travelling-gear, now unfortunately of no service to me, for some local and ethnographical curiosities. Two-thirds of the plants that I collected were new to me, and most of those