212 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



and figs both of which latter are excellent for stew- 

 ing, and many other things, which they are glad to 

 exchange on the farms for coffee, sugar, etc. This 

 barter is quite the usual way of doing business in the 

 Karroo ; and so many transactions are carried on with- 

 out the aid of money, that the latter is hardly required, 

 and indeed is seldom seen on the farms. If a man or 

 woman servant comes to do an odd day's work, or a 

 passing workman breaks his journey by staying a 

 couple of days and making himself generally useful, 

 payment is almost always made in meal, coffee, or 

 other articles of food, instead of in money. Copper 

 coins, being universally despised, are not in use ; con- 

 sequently the most trifling service performed, however 

 badly, by one of the coloured race, must be rewarded 

 with no smaller sum than threepence, or to give it its 

 familiar colonial name a " tickey." 



Fowls, of course, with their obligingly convenient 

 size, are an invaluable boon in the hot weather ; and it 

 is a delightful relief when, with an empty larder and 

 consequent light heart, free for a while from the cares 

 and anxieties of the meat, you prolong the respite, and 

 putting off till to-morrow the slaying of the next 

 four-legged incubus sacrifice in its stead the noisiest 

 crower, or the most inveterate of the kitchen's feathered 

 intruders. To be sure, hurried, as he is, straight from 

 his last agonies, into the pot or the oven, you cannot 

 expect him to be very tender ; but an attempt at hang- 

 ing him is too likely to result in the sudden discovery 

 that he has hung a little too long, and you have learnt 



