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
When at Kolobeng, during the droughts we were entirely dependent on
Kuruman for supplies of corn. Once we were reduced to living on bran,
to convert which into fine meal we had to grind it three times over. We
were much in want of animal food, which seems to be a greater necessary
of life there than vegetarians would imagine. Being alone, we could
not divide the butcher-meat of a slaughtered animal with a prospect
of getting a return with regularity. Sechele had, by right of
chieftainship, the breast of every animal slaughtered either at home or
abroad, and he most obligingly sent us a liberal share during the whole
period of our sojourn. But these supplies were necessarily so irregular
that we were sometimes fain to accept a dish of locusts. These are quite
a blessing in the country, so much so that the RAIN-DOCTORS sometimes
promised to bring them by their incantations. The locusts are strongly
vegetable in taste, the flavor varying with the plants on which they
feed. There is a physiological reason why locusts and honey should be
eaten together. Some are roasted and pounded into meal, which, eaten
with a little salt, is palatable. It will keep thus for months. Boiled,
they are disagreeable; but when they are roasted I should much prefer
locusts to shrimps, though I would avoid both if possible.
In traveling we sometimes suffered considerably from scarcity of meat,
though not from absolute want of food. This was felt more especially by
my children; and the natives, to show their sympathy, often gave them
a large kind of caterpillar, which they seemed to relish; these insects
could not be unwholesome, for the natives devoured them in large
quantities themselves.
Another article of which our children partook with eagerness was a very
large frog, called "Matlametlo".*
* The Pyxicephalus adspersus of Dr. Smith.
Length of head and body, 5-1/2 inches;
fore legs, 3 inches;
hind legs, 6 inches.
Width of head posteriorly, 3 inches;
of body, 4-1/2 inches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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