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, Kaffirs eat them, horses, sheep, and all sorts 

 of game eat them, lions eat them, wolves eat them, 

 birds eat them — they must 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 

 Inkwisi 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 Boer'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." 



