The Kitchen Kaffir is slightly heterogeneous. A number of English and Dutch words have crept into it, with certain modifications to adapt them to the genius of the Zulu language. Amongst the former we would cite _callidge_ (carriage), _follik_ (fork), _nquati_ (note, or letter), _lice_ (rice), and so on, the pronunciation being governed by the fact that the Kaffirs experience difficulty in articulating _r_. The letter _x_ is also a stumbling-block. Hence ‘box’ is transformed into _bogus_, and a popular English Christmas institution transplanted to the colony is known as a ‘Kissmiss bogus.’ ‘Sunday,’ again, is spoken of as _Sonda_ or _Sonto_; and ‘horse’ is _ihashi_. In denoting money there are also some peculiar terms. A threepenny piece is known as a _pen_, and the latter word is pretty generally used amongst the Europeans themselves. I may here interject the remark that the threepenny piece is about the lowest coin in circulation in the colony. Pennies are scarce, and farthings an unknown quantity. I was told by a Natal schoolmistress that one of the greatest difficulties she met with was in teaching the children how many farthings made up a penny; and a little colonial-born girl once said to me: ‘Oh! how I would like to go to England to see farthings!’ The Kaffirs look down with contempt upon coppers. A half-crown is called, by a strange phonetic twist, a _facquelin_, and a florin—well, thereby hangs a tale. Some years ago, a contractor in Natal, who hailed from the north of the Tweed, hit upon a brilliant idea, which he thought would result in a great saving of expenditure. In giving his Kaffir labourers their weekly payment, he substituted two-shilling pieces—till then unknown among the natives—for half-crowns, thinking the ‘untutored savage’ would not detect the difference. They went away contented; but it was not long ere the storekeepers had enlightened their minds as to the true value of the money. I forget how the matter ended; but it is a sad fact that to this day the Kaffirs always speak of a florin as a ‘Scotchman.’ Traces of Dutch in Kitchen Kaffir are numerous.