CAFFER REPAST. 263 



hut. In that of a wealthy Caffer there is usually a 

 milk-sack made of bullock's hide, so closely sewn 

 together as to prevent leakage, and capable of con- 

 taining several gallons, but the poorer classes are 

 content to keep their milk in calabashes. The food 

 of these people varies with the seasons ; their prin- 

 cipal support is milk and a coarse description of 

 unleavened bread, made from a kind of millet 

 called Caffer corn, roughly ground between two 

 stones. Meat is only eaten on great occasions, such 

 as marriages and other festivals, or when they are 

 obliged to kill an ox for the support of their wives 

 while engaged in the duties of cultivating the land 

 and suckling their infants ; or at the time when 

 karosses are required for the use of their families, 

 which seldom happens more than once a year, and 

 amongst the poorer classes not so frequently. They 

 never eat salt, to which they have a decided aver- 

 sion. The milk is poured into a leathern sack as 

 before described, which being placed in the sun, 

 soon curdles ; a mess of this with a little Caffer corn, 

 or a head of Indian corn either boiled or roasted, is 

 in their estimation a most delicious repast. They 

 preserve their corn in holes, dug for the purpose, in 

 the centre of their cattle kraal, covering it with ma- 

 nure, which being trodden down and well hardened 

 generally protects it from the wet, and where they 

 consider it as being more secure from the attacks 

 of marauders. Should it prove occasionally rather 



