DIET OF THE MOORS. 
65 
ferred it ; but I always suspected that their only motive was 
the difficulty of procuring it, which prevented the slaves 
from drinking it also ; a sort of distinction of which they are 
jealous. I have seen the queen several times eat meat swim- 
ming in melted butter. 
In the rainy season the Moors seldom take any other 
food than milk, which they have in abundance at that period 
of the year. The rich sometimes kill a sheep, but not often. 
The king's guehue killed a sheep one day, and was roasting 
it on the embers while I was in his tent ; presently as many 
as thirty Moors collected, having found out what was going 
on by the smell of the meat ; and they watched like so many 
ravenous beasts for the moment when they could satisfy 
their voracious appetite. The guehue hoped to have got rid 
of them by distributing some small pieces among them ; but 
no sooner had he sat down to the feast with his wife, than 
the Moors fell upon it and carried it all off, tearing the scraps 
from one another's hands and mouths ; they even fought for 
the bones, and dispatched the poor guehue's sheep without 
giving him a taste. I could only compare them to dogs 
fighting for a piece of meat that one of them had stolen ; 
and I, who had been invited to partake with the lawful pro- 
prietor, was not more fortunate than himself. This was a 
great disappointment to me, as I was very hungry. 1 was 
told that this scene could not have taken place except at a 
guehue's, and that they would not have dared to behave so 
to a person of more importance. 
I sometimes suggested to the Moors that they would 
improve their fare by sending their slaves to collect haze, 
and making it into sangleh, but this hurt their pride : " It is 
food for the common people," said they, " and for slaves ; 
we do not condescend to eat it.'" Those who have a little 
millet left from their stock save it for the return of the dry 
season, when milk becomes scarce. 
The Moors have large herds of oxen and camels 5 and 
VOL. I. F 
