SEEDEES AS SERVANTS. 
75 
and defied capture, they never thought of calming 
her, but all would arm with guns, spears, swords, and 
sticks, and chase her down till stupefied with fear. If 
they had been behaving badly, it did not prevent them 
from asking to have a cow given them ; and on being 
refused, they never sulked, but took it out of you some 
other way by studying their own wishes, comforts, and 
wants in marching, halting, eating, drinking, or steal- 
ing whatever they pleased, and at night giving us the 
benefit of their laughter, shouting, and riots or howl- 
ing, in imitation of a Wezee who has smoked bhang. 
Our cooks (Seedee boys) were most difficult to teach, 
though they had learned a little from the Cape men, 
who had always done this duty. The only idea these 
black roughs had of cooking for themselves was to 
stick a wooden skewer into a piece of meat and scorch 
it over the ashes, or make stirabout. No great cuisine 
could therefore be expected. Being anxious on one 
occasion to get some soup after a fever, and knowing 
the larder to contain only a wild duck, I asked Eehan, 
" Could you get me some soup for breakfast ? I cannot 
eat meat" " Yes." " What ! " said I, " out of a duck ? " 
" 0 yes." Thinking him a clever fellow, I gladly con- 
sented; but his soup was only a thin watery stew, placed 
before me with the most perfect complaisance. Again, 
at 7 p.m., he came up asking would I like some dinner? 
He had not thought of preparing even a boiled potato. 
Such were the men we had as cooks for our entire 
journey. On the march a party of them tried, by 
holding out for three days in not accepting their 
rations, to extort double allowances, on account of the 
price of provisions ; but finding it of no use, they 
quietly submitted. Again, they told us our donkeys 
