Missionary Travels and Researches in South AfricaLivingstone, David
Religion
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa
Livingstone, David
Missions -- South Africa; South Africa -- Description and travel
As the Makololo have great abundance of cattle, and the chief is
expected to feed all who accompany him, he either selects an ox or
two of his own from the numerous cattle stations that he possesses at
different spots all over the country, or is presented by the head men of
the villages he visits with as many as he needs by way of tribute. The
animals are killed by a thrust from a small javelin in the region of
the heart, the wound being purposely small in order to avoid any loss
of blood, which, with the internal parts, are the perquisites of the
men who perform the work of the butcher; hence all are eager to render
service in that line. Each tribe has its own way of cutting up and
distributing an animal. Among the Makololo the hump and ribs belong to
the chief; among the Bakwains 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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