When they thresh they also invite a lot of their neighbors. They place the grain on a large flat rock and then strike it with a straight stick. Once I was present when a large number of the Amahole, or subject tribes, were threshing. They were decked out with all their ornaments, and being divided into two sides were placed opposite to one another, like two opposing forces in battle array. Each being armed with his threshing stick, they performed a mimic battle with the grain lying on the rock between the two lines of battle, each one alternately driving the other before it and at the same time beating the grain with their sticks. They also sang their war song, of how the Matabele overcame them and impaled them alive, and of the dire vengeance they would inflict in return. The interlude would be occupied by a sort of ballet dancer among them. The whole was exceedingly heathenish, but not uninteresting; and as for the grain, a large amount of it was threshed. While much of the work falls to the women, some of the native men are quite diligent in digging in their gardens; but they generally wish to sell their grain and secure money to pay taxes for themselves and their wives. The women, in addition to growing most of the food that is eaten, often help to furnish the tax money. Of course to the raw native dress is a negligible quantity. The people are always generous, and the food in the kraals is shared with the strangers. No one needs to go through the country hungry unless there is famine, and even then they will often divide the last morsel. When the stranger comes among them, they always bid him welcome, and it is etiquette to let him remain for at least one day without asking him any questions as to his business among them. Even in respect to continually begging, which is so obnoxious to Europeans, the native is not so rude as it would appear. They are not slow to ask one another, and they have often surprised me by saying that they felt flattered to be asked for articles, as it showed that they had something which the other did not have and they had an opportunity to help. A native likes to have plenty, but he does not want to have his gardens surpass too much those of his neighbors, in productiveness; neither does he want his herds to surpass others too much, for fear he may be an object of envy to those around him and a victim of malice, or be accused of witchcraft. There always seems to be a great attachment between the mother and her children all through life. This does not hinder the big, stout boy, however, from lying around and living on the bounty of his hard-working mother, and on the other hand the heathen boy will often exert himself to aid his mother and pay her hut tax, and she often lives with her son when she becomes old.