Porridge is made by stirring the maize or millet flour (usually the former) into boiling water, and is ready in a few minutes, once the water has been brought to the boil, which, with a large jar and a small fire, is apt to be a work of time. The pot is supported over the fire on three stones. Maize porridge (_nsima_) is, if well made of good flour, about the colour of a suet dumpling; if inferior, it is more or less greyish. It is very stodgy, trying to a European digestion, and exceedingly sticky to the touch. Natives will eat surprising quantities of it; but they feel it a privation to be obliged to take it without salt, or some kind of ‘relish’ (_ndiwo_). This may be beans, or ground-nuts, or green vegetables of some sort, such as the leaves of the manioc; or, more rarely, a fowl, or a bit of goat’s flesh. Whatever it is, it is put on to boil in a small pot beside the large one, after the latter has been on for some time. Occasionally roasted rats, such as the boys bring in from the fields, are eaten as _ndiwo_, or winged white ants—a great delicacy—or dried locusts. Some tribes consider dried (and very high) fish a choice kind of _ndiwo_—others will not touch fish in any shape. [Illustration: TWO MEN EATING Note the small earthen pot with the _ndiwo_] In the spring and early summer, when the old maize is finished and the new is not yet ripe, pumpkins, gourds, and cucumbers of various kinds are a great stand-by, and are eaten boiled. Sweet potatoes are most frequently roasted in the ashes, and manioc-root is eaten either boiled or raw. In the planting and weeding seasons, people set out for the gardens before daylight, and return before noon, resting during the hottest hours of the day. There are only two formal meals in the day—one about noon or somewhat earlier, the other about sunset. Mothers put away some of the cold porridge overnight, to give the children in the morning, and boys are always roasting sweet potatoes in the ashes at odd times. Any one who feels hungry between meals can usually find something to nibble at; perhaps a roasted maize-cob, or a piece of raw chinangwa (manioc-root). Men on a journey often make ‘pop-corn’ over an improvised fire, roasting the grains (nowadays) on a shovel usually made by fixing the lid of a tin box into a cleft stick. Beer (_moa_) is made of maize or millet—more frequently of the latter. The process is as follows:—