Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/187

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First Visit to the Marutse Kingdom.
141

mat; we were accommodated in a similar way, and conducted to our seats upon his left hand, the queen and some officials being placed upon his right. The meal consisted of boiled eland flesh served upon plates, and this time we found ourselves provided with knives and forks, which had been introduced by the traders from the west coast. As sauce to the meat we were offered manza, a transparent sort of meal-pap, that upon analyzing, I afterwards ascertained was very nutritious. After supper some impote (honey-beer) was brought in a round-bodied gourd-shell with a twisted neck, and poured out into large tin mugs that had been a present from Westbeech. The butler, after clapping his hands, sat down in the open space in front of the king and drank off the first goblet; the king took the next, and, after sipping it, passed it to the queen on his left, and then received it back from her and offered it to us; although several of the chiefs that were present were allowed to partake of the beverage, no one but ourselves was permitted to put his lips to the royal cup. When the drinking was over, the king rose from his seat, took off his boots, and gave them to the waiting-maid who had brought in the meat, and retired to his house, though not until he had invited me to breakfast with him in the morning.

I had been asleep in my new quarters for about two hours, when I was roused by a noise in the small front room of the storehouse, and looking out I saw a glimmer of light, by which I could distinctly make out that Sepopo and some of his people were rummaging amongst the goods that Blockley had just deposited there; after waiting a little longer, I saw Sepopo come out and walk off with a waggon-