A POPULAR DIET. 127 
" P.S. — ... I am adding this P.S. in the waggon, 
but I miss John Lee's drone, which I find helps me 
to write. He discoursed on locusts to-night. As 
he says, Kafirs eat them, horses, sheep, and all sorts 
of game eat them, lions eat them, wolves eat them, 
birds eat them — they mtist be very nice ; only white 
men and vultures don't eat them. I believe but for 
locusts an immense number of people would have 
died of famine last year at Mungwato." 
It was the 6th of February when Frank Oates 
left John Lee's, and the 9th when he reached the 
Inkwesi River. The country round Lee's farm is 
of a somewhat striking character, and, though much 
healthier than most of the surrounding district, is 
not wholly free from the annoyances elsewhere occa- 
sioned by the summer rains. " The scenery here," 
writes Frank Oates, " with the swollen current of 
the river and huge magnificent boulders, is as fine 
in its way as any one would wish to see. The 
gardens, however, which have suffered terribly from 
the drought, are now suffering equally from the 
wet. They require both irrigation for the dry, 
and drainage for the rainy, season." The way in 
which Lee lived with his family round him, and 
the sort of relationship existing between them, 
afforded an odd example of a Dutchman's life in 
the interior. " It reminds one," says the traveller, 
" of feudal times : old Lee, the lord ; his brother, a 
wretched serf; his father-in-law, not much better; 
and all his poor relations living about in little huts 
round his big house." 
