Chapter XIV: Camp Cookery (2)

What we rather absurdly reject as the offal of an animal contains in reality some of its tenderest and best parts, and the natives who follow a white man for the game he kills are well aware of this; and they know that he has a prejudice in favour of cleanliness, which to them seems groundless. However, they do not fail to take advantage of it, and, in cutting up an animal, generally contrive to break up the interior in such a manner that, without actually spoiling the tit bits, they give them a very unsightly appearance. If the traveller is content with the solid flesh, of course he can let them do as they like; if not, he must look out in time. It is quite well to know that the marrow-bones slightly warmed afford most delicious food; the marrow of the ox is good, that of the buffalo is better, but that of the koodoo is the _ne plus ultra_. The bones of the quagga--at least, so far as our experience goes--afford no marrow; indeed, there is no hollow for it, the inside being a cellular structure filled with oil. The flesh, also, being rather rank, persons of very delicate taste do not relish it. The wild Hottentots, however, not only eat it, but use the name "quagga" as the general term for food. We have frequently eaten it, and can safely say that it only requires a good appetite to make it palatable enough. The head of this or any other animal is best cooked in its skin--a good fire being made round it and earth heaped over the embers all night.

The skin of most animals will afford nutriment--of course, the thicker it is the better; that of the hippopotamus, which varies in different parts from half an inch to two inches, is very good. It may be roasted, or broiled, or boiled down to a soft jelly or even to a soup or gelatine, and in all these various forms it is good. We have saved large slabs of the hide after killing a hippopotamus; and after the flesh was gone the skin served us well, the Damaras washing it and pounding it between a couple of stones till it was tender enough to eat. When that was done, however, and we had to come down upon the hides of buffaloes shot three months before, and at that time dried so hard in the sun that we had to cut them up with a hand-saw, we found that, even after a couple of days' soaking in the pool and two days more of boiling, nothing but the simple fact that we had nothing else would have induced us to eat them. The quagga skin is even harder; but our native followers cut it out piecemeal from under a Dutch lad who was using it as a bed till they barely left him enough to lie upon. We had used the hide of a black rhinoceros to make side chests for the waggon, and these, though much harder than the hardest wood we know, were taken off, roasted, pounded between stones, and eaten. Meat that has been cut into small pieces and exposed to the heat of the sun, so as partially to dry without allowing it to become tainted, may be eaten without further cooking.

In Tartary it is said to be common for a rider to cut a thin steak of beef and lay it under his saddle before he sets out on his journey, and after some hours he finds that the combined effects of constant pressure and warmth have, if not cooked it, at least rendered it palatable enough to be eaten.

In Norway, the stew-pot, after having stood for some time upon the fire, is taken off and wrapped in a thick covering of felt, which, being a bad conductor, prevents the escape of the heat, and forces it to expend itself on the continued cooking of the meat. A very neat arrangement of this kind was recently exhibited at the Polytechnic under the name of the Norwegian cooking stove. It consists of a small wooden box, thickly lined with felt, in which there is just room to deposit a stew-pan. After it has been brought to boiling heat upon the fire, it is then shut close, and in three or four hours the dinner is thoroughly cooked. We should think this, in waggon travelling in Africa, for soldiers on the march, or on board fishing boats or small vessels, would be a very desirable acquisition.

In Australia we constantly ate our ration of salt pork uncooked; and, even when recently taken from the cask, it was very good in this manner, with a little lime-juice and sugar. _Per contra_, however, the pork, with the bone cut out, and packed in canvas bags for carriage by pack horses, soon became dried by the sun; the fat all melted out of it, and was used to grease our boots or harness; and the once juicy, succulent, full-sized four-pound piece of pork became, after a few months' carriage, a semi-fossilized bit of nondescript matter, not much bigger than our fist, and weighing just three-quarters of a pound. Nevertheless, we had to take it at its nominal value, as we had no opportunity of replenishing our stores until our return to camp; and we found experimentally that we could not afford to diminish our scanty rations any further by boiling it.

It may be of interest here to give the scale of rations on which we travelled, and on which, though we could certainly have consumed more, we lived and worked for several months without finding our health or strength in any way impaired:

Salt pork, per diem, 1 lb. (nom.)
Flour, 1 lb.
Coffee, roasted and ground, 3/4 oz.
Or tea, 1/4 oz.
Sugar, 3 oz.
Tobacco, 1/4 oz.
Soap, 1/4 oz.

In camp, if we killed a sheep, the allowance was 1-1/4 lb. of fresh meat instead of salt; a pint pannikin was also used as holding an equivalent to 1 lb. of flour. But on the journey we were never able to issue a full pound, because drying it in the sun diminished its weight; and, beside this, as we carried two 1/2-lb. tins of gunpowder in each 50 lb. bag of flour, their weight, as well as that of the double canvas bag, had to be deducted, leaving a net weight of very little over 48 lb. In serving the weekly rations, our plan was to weigh every man's bag of flour against our own, and, if he thought his was in any way deficient, to give him the option of changing; also, when the pork was laid out, to let every man choose his ration, and to take that which remained for ourselves; and we found, as we believe will generally be the case, that the men, seeing that they were fairly treated, did not abuse the confidence we placed in them.

{Sheep killing.}

In times of scarcity, it may be well in killing a sheep to follow the example of the Tartars, who are perhaps the most dexterous sheep butchers in the world. When they kill a sheep nothing is wasted; even the blood is most carefully preserved for use. Instead of cutting the throat of the animal in the usual way, they pass a long slender knife in by the side of the breast-bone in such a way that all the large vessels above the heart are instantly severed. All the blood therein contained is poured out into the cavity of the chest without the escape of any. When requisite, it is ladled or scooped out, and placed in some convenient vessel. To skin the animal, the knife is first run along the whole abdominal line, from the top of the throat under the chin to the inside of the root of the tail, lines are then cut up each leg to the hoof, and the skin is dexterously stripped back from each side until nothing but a mere line of adhesion is left from the top of the tail, along the middle of the back, and up the neck. The sheep is now turned on its back, and the skin spread evenly out, like a mat, under it. The process of division into convenient joints now takes place, each piece being arranged in order on the skin, whilst the offal is secured in a wide basket. When all the joints have been duly cut out, the skin is taken by two men, one before to grasp the skins of the fore-legs and the other those of the hind, just as a hand-barrow is carried; and in this way the meat is carried to the tents for use.

{Economy in food.}

Once, in Australia, after having emptied a 50lb. bag of sugar, we rinsed out the bag with half a pint of water, making a strong syrup, which we poured into a small iron bucket; then, rinsing it again with another half pint, we obtained a like quantity, somewhat less sweet; and this we repeated till the bag was washed clean and we had about three pints of sweetened water in our bucket. We then drew from the store half a ration of sago for four persons--_i.e._, 1/2lb. each--boiled it in the syrup, and thus produced a mess which everyone who tasted it declared to be delicious.

One of our party devoted a spare hour to fishing, and, with hook and line, caught a large water tortoise and some fish; and shot a bird. The first of these when killed--_i.e._, so far as the division of the jugular would kill it--was laid upon its back upon the embers, served up in its own shell, and was a most palatable addition to our meal.

The large lizards of Australia, sometimes from 4ft. to nearly 6ft. long, are most excellent and delicate food, but the proper method is to roast them in the skin; and we have known the most intense anxiety felt lest we should require the skin of a particularly fine one as a specimen of natural history. This was somewhat calmed by the assurance that we only wished to sketch it, but the operation was most jealously watched, and, when we had completed our picture, we divided the body into quarters and the tail into four junks, for the four members of the party; and these dainties, carefully spread upon forked branches cut for the purpose, were set up above the embers of an ample fire, raked out into glowing heaps under each junk or quarter. In about twenty minutes they were thoroughly cooked, and proved, indeed, a delicacy, the flesh being white as chicken, and the taste reminding us rather of turkey than anything else.

The various cockatoos, parrots, wood-pigeons, storks, and cranes are all good. The dawn or rose-breasted cockatoo (_Cacatoa eos_), the white variety with the sulphur-coloured crest, or the black cockatoo, each form a very tolerable, though not an ample, meal for one man. Various species of hawks or kites, though not so delicate, may also be eaten; and in Australia, where carrion is not so plentiful as in Africa, and the hawks feed principally upon insects or small fish, their flesh, though dark in colour and tough, is by no means bad. We have eaten the white-headed African fish-eagle and the large horned owl, which, though somewhat tough and rank, were better than going upon scanty fare.

We first ate the flesh of a snake at Graham's Town, South Africa. A friend had brought us a puff-adder as a specimen; and, when we had skinned it, the flesh looked so white and firm that we cut out a junk, about 6in. long and as thick as our wrist, and desired the Kafir girl, who acted as cook, to fry it. An acquaintance who partook of it acknowledged that it was good, and that only the thought of eating snake prevented his enjoying it more fully.

The Australian blacks eat snakes of every kind, as well as any small animals they can catch; and we have often seen fellows whose sole apparel consisted of a snake girded round their waist, with two or three rats hitched by their tails to it. We were taught the orthodox way of cooking them by a first-rate fellow, John Fahey, an Irishman, who had been nearly fourteen years among the blacks. He first let the flame expend itself, and then spread out the embers, on these he coiled up the snake until the scales were slightly scorched; then taking it by the tail, he drew it repeatedly through his hand, brushing the crisp scales off toward the head, and again coiled it on the embers till it was thoroughly cooked; then opening it and throwing away the offal he picked out the tit bits and offered them to us, and afterwards divided the body.

The flesh of the alligator while young, and not more than 6ft. in length, is very good; but when larger, it becomes very strong, and acquires a musky flavour. We once killed an alligator of 11ft. on the Horseshoe flats, near Curiosity Peak, Victoria River, North Australia. The smell was to a degree rank; yet when we took the carcase to the vessel next morning, and the second overseer cleaned the skin and skeleton, we found that excellent cutlets were to be obtained from the muscular portion of the tail; and after breakfast, when the prejudices of the crew had given way, claimants were found for the flesh as fast as it could be stripped from the bones. Considerable seasoning was required, but still it was better than salt junk.

{White ants.}

In South Africa, just when the white ants are about to swarm and take the half-hour's flight which is allowed them before their wings drop off, the natives collect with torches; the ants, being attracted by the light, assemble, and are swept up by basketsful. After being scorched, they are kept in mat bags, holding two or three gallons each, and are really delicious food. They are pleasant to the taste, and very nutritious; for if one be left on a sheet of note-paper when the sun is shining brightly on it oil enough will exude to make a spot a couple of inches in diameter. The chief convenience of these is that they require no cooking, but any quantity may be carried in a bag, and a handful taken out and eaten when wanted.

The vast clouds of locusts, which in some countries both darken the air and devastate the land, are eaten greedily by nearly everything possessing life--men, animals, birds, fish, and insects, all join in the locust feast. The provident savage lays by a store merely smoke dried, to consume at his leisure with such tuberous roots or other underground productions as his sable spouse, armed with her sharp pointed grubbing stick, can procure for him.

The inhabitants of many of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago consume certain insects as food, wherever they can procure them. Mr. Wallace, who resided some time among the Dyaks, says: "Every day boys were to be seen walking along the roads, and by the hedges and ditches, catching dragon flies with birdlime. They carry a slender stick, with a few twigs at the end, well anointed, so that the least touch captures the insect, whose wings are pulled off before it is consigned to a small basket. The dragon flies are so abundant at the time of the rice flowering, that thousands are soon caught in this way. The bodies are fried in oil, with onions and preserved shrimps, or sometimes alone, and are considered a great delicacy." In Borneo, Celebes, and many other islands, the larvæ of bees and wasps are eaten either alive as pulled out of the cells, or fried like the dragon flies. In the Moluccas the grubs of the palm beetles (_Calandra_) are regularly brought to market in bamboos and sold for food; and many of the great horned Lamellicorn beetles are slightly roasted on the embers, and eaten whenever met with. In many districts where the cocoanut palm grows abundantly, the curved and tightly rolled up immature fronds are perforated by the workings and burrowings of the "Tucuma" or "Grugru," the larvæ of _Oryctes rhinoceros_. These are large plump grubs, with black hard heads, and are esteemed a great luxury, being either fried in cocoanut oil, or seized by the head, dipped in a little lime juice and disposed of without further preparation.

The nests of the white ants are often broken by the natives in search of the eggs, and even of the insects, for scarcity of animal food compels them to eat anything, and the grubs that lurk under the bark of the gum trees are accounted delicious fare. John Fahey was an adept in searching them out; and in fact, when we first made our camp, girdled several trees in order that they might die, and that grubs might accumulate under the bark. The grubs are eaten fresh, raw and living, just as they are taken from the tree.

In most countries there will be some vegetable product or other available for food. In Australia we have cut out what may be called the cabbage from the roots of the pandanus leaves, and found it, when boiled, almost as good as a very inferior turnip. The seeds from the large globular fruit were also worth looking for, because in the pencil of fibre, by which they are attached to the base, is contained a quantity of sweet and farinaceous matter; this we found also was highly relished by the small fish and fresh-water tortoises in the rivulets, and we frequently baited our hooks with them.

In Africa, if we were accompanied by a Damara on a shooting trip, and were unsuccessful, we returned hungry, but if we took a Makalaka, he would be sure to dig up roots or gather wild fruit, or vegetables of some kind or other; and perhaps catch a lizard or other small creature, or occasionally discover a bees' nest in a hollow tree. Once when we were much exhausted with long-continued want of food, the man who accompanied us saw a few of the small African bees around the branch of a tree, he forthwith climbed it, and chopping off a piece of bark, bruised up the ends with the head of his axe, till he had formed a kind of trough, which he set his assistants to hold, and chopped away till he had sufficiently enlarged the hole to allow him to extract the honeycomb.

The roots of the lotus or blue water-lily are very good, and have a taste, when roasted, something between that of a chesnut and a potatoe.

Lotus roots are obtained from the bottoms of some of the Eastern lakes and rivers by making use of a very long and soft leather sack. Into this the lotus gatherer gets until the top of the sack is on a level with his neck. He then walks, or rather hobbles, into the water, wades by short steps out to the lotus beds; and, when he feels the roots beneath his feet, he digs and works with his toes and heels until they are detached from their hold on the bottom, and float on the surface, from which they are readily raked and collected for use.

The Bushmen wade in the shallow pools and pluck them up by hand, but in the deeper rivers the canoe men have long poles with a hook at the end for detaching the roots. In these pools, also, they frequently capture the "matamaetlie" or edible frog, which is sometimes nearly as large as a chicken. The Bushmen grip them by the nape of the neck, strike them across the thighs and across the spine to disable them, and then, placing their lips to the vent, blow till they force the stomach and all the entrails out at the mouth. The flesh of these frogs is exceedingly good, more like chicken than anything else, and we often found a good-sized one make us a very satisfying meal.

{Lotus seed.}

The seed of the lotus is extensively used as food throughout the East; the Chinese esteem it highly, and prepare it in a great number of ways. Sir Samuel Baker, in speaking of lotus seed, says: "All the tribes of the White Nile have their harvest of lotus seed; there are two species of water-lily, the large white flower, and the small variety. The seed pod of the white lotus is like an unblown artichoke, containing a number of light red grains, equal in size to mustard seed, but shaped like those of the poppy, and similar to them in flavour, being sweet and nutty. The ripe pods are collected, and strung upon sharp pointed reeds, about 4ft. in length. When thus threaded they are formed into large bundles, and carried from the river to the villages, where they are dried in the sun and stored for use. The seed is ground into flour, and made into a kind of porridge."

{Rice, to boil.}

Rice is so well known as a food grain that little need be said of it further than that a wild kind is found growing in many of the swamps of America; the grain from this is beaten off with sticks into canoes which are propelled through the shallow water in which the rice stalks grow. Some skill is required in cooking rice, in order that each grain may be separate. Our native Indian cook used to proceed as follows: The rice was first thoroughly washed in a large jar of clean cold water, two washings being generally required to remove all stain. The water was then strained off, and the clean rice drained quite dry. A cooking pot full of water was then placed on a brisk fire, and allowed to boil actively; when in full ebullition the rice was cast in, the fire stirred, and the boiling continued actively for about sixteen minutes, when the pot was lifted off, placed on one side, and a pint lota pot of cold water thrown suddenly into it; the sudden chill thus communicated divides every grain from its fellow, and, when strained dry, rice prepared in this manner is truly excellent and attractive.

Ostrich's eggs have often been treated of, and every traveller speaks of them according to his particular experience. Probably, when a party of half-a-dozen men have plenty of bread and every other necessary for a good meal, they will find that one egg is quite enough for them; while a stout fellow, destitute of everything but a keen appetite, would find an ostrich's egg not more than enough to satisfy himself. The capacity of a good-sized one is about 2-1/2 pints, the taste is rich, and sometimes a trifle strong; in fact, we could never eat much of one unless it were in some way diluted, say mixed with flour and made into a cake. The readiest way of cooking them is to break one end of the shell, set the other end into the embers on the ground, and so cook and serve the contents in their own shell. We prefer, however, to start the egg into an earthen pot, and add nearly an equal quantity of flour or meal, making cakes or fritters, seasoned or not according to taste.

{Various foods.}

Indeed, we should think that, if eggs in plenty could be obtained, this would be a very economical and effective way of provisioning a small party for a journey where everything must be carried, and where the means of carriage was scant or perhaps altogether wanting; but, in this case, the eggs would have to be mixed with as much flour as they would take up, and the cakes baked as dry as possible without burning any part of them. A nautical friend has told us of a plan adopted on surveying expeditions, when boats are sent for several days from the ship. A rough grater is made by punching holes in a sheet of tin, and a junk of salt meat grated down tolerably fine; the meat powder is then mixed with flour with very little water, rolled up into small balls or cakes, and dried in the galley. When wanted, a portion is broken off, kneaded with a little water, enveloped in a crust of flour and water, tied up in a cloth, and boiled in the boat's copper as a meat pudding.

The North Australian expedition was abundantly supplied with preserved fresh meat, but the tins in which it was packed could not conveniently be carried in bags on pack horses, and therefore, in preparation for an extensive inland journey, estimating the quantity required, we took out of store equal weights of preserved beef and flour; then taking the contents of a 6lb. tin of beef and 6lb. of flour, he kneaded them together, divided the mass into forty-eight parts of 1/4lb. each, and baked them in an oven built of clay and the schooner's pig ballast for the purpose. Nearly 3lb. weight were lost by the evaporation of the moisture in the process of baking, so that the forty-eight cakes representing 12lb. of meat and flour, and forming six days' rations for one man, could be carried at a weight of 9lb.; the rations of sugar and other groceries making the total weight only about 10-1/2lb. or at most 11lb. As long as the biscuits remained whole four of them were considered equivalent to 1lb.; but when they were broken up into dust a pannikin about three-quarters full was reckoned an equivalent. In either case, the best way of using it was to mix it with water and warm it up as a thick soup. This compound has been adopted by other travellers in Australia, and found to answer the purpose exceedingly well.

We should think that where fresh and really good fruit is plentiful it might be treated with flour nearly in the same manner, and would form a very agreeable variation in the diet. Dried fruit may be had in many countries, such as Cape Colony, where dried peaches, raisins, &c. are constantly in the market, and these stewed with the meat are not to be despised; but in some form or other vegetable matter, as acid as possible, is absolutely necessary; for no one who has not been compelled to live for weeks together upon meat alone can imagine how utterly disgusting the smell and taste of even the freshest and most savoury joints become when unvaried by any vegetable, to say nothing of the injury to health that such a diet must cause. In Australia we have gathered the young shoots of the wild vine and made what our cook called rhubarb tarts of them; and when these failed, a small succulent herb called "portulac," or more popularly "potluck," which could be eaten as a salad, supplied their place. In Africa we have found unspeakable relief from a bundle of dry tamarinds brought from a distant tribe; and when recrossing the desert during the rainy season, we found abundant supplies of wild grapes growing luxuriantly along our path. No matter that they were not ripe; the more tart and sour they were the better; and by the time we had got well within the desert border, and were beginning to find that the intense sourness, which had already served its purpose as a corrective, was beginning to set our teeth on edge, we also began to find riper clusters on the bushes as we advanced; they were, of course, not equal to the cultivated varieties, but were by no means a bad substitute.

We also gathered daily large quantities of the beer berry, or "ovúmbapoov," about the size of a cranberry, but nearly filled with a hard stone or kernel; these were of a pleasant, sweetish, acid taste, and could be eaten as we gathered them and walked along, or when we halted could be pounded with water in a "halwe stamp block," or modern mortar, into a very pleasant pulp; the only drawback was the small quantity of food in proportion to the amount of kernel, and the difficulty of getting rid of the latter. Sometimes we would collect a quantity, pour boiling water upon them, let it stand to extract the juices, and then put it aside to ferment. The liquor thus obtained was not unpleasant, it was something between inferior beer and second-rate cider. Once we boiled the juice down to a thick syrup, which was so sweet that a spoonful of it served instead of sugar to our tea, but the quantity produced was so small in proportion to the trouble that we never repeated the process. Many other fruits, roots, and vegetables might be named; but if the traveller makes friends of the natives they will find whatever the country produces for him, and they will never refuse to share what they pick up either with him or with their hungry comrades. Indeed their language supplies no title of contempt equivalent to that of "the man who eats alone," or who saves anything for the morrow.

We cannot omit, however, to mention the fruit of the Baobab or "Adansonia," which both in Africa and in Australia we have found extremely valuable. The tree will at once be known by its enormous size. We have generally seen young, well-conditioned trees 30ft. in circumference, while others have been 50ft. or 60ft., and the largest we know of was actually 101ft.; its height, however, is by no means proportionate, it being seldom more than 60ft., or at most 70ft. or 80ft. The fruit is generally about the size of an ostrich's egg, though we have seen it much larger; the rind is about as thick as the egg-shell, and easily broken; the interior is occupied by seeds imbedded in a pleasant sub-acid pulp, of a white colour, which when dry resembles cream of tartar, and has caused the Dutch Africans to bestow upon it the name of "krem tart boom," or cream-of-tartar tree. This pulp the Bushmen pound up with a little water, and sometimes mix with it a little meal of grass seeds, to thicken it, or by adding more water make a very pleasant drink.

In Australia we found even the soft wood so succulent that we could cut out a junk with the axe, and chew it for the moisture it contained like a wet sponge; while the fruit of the Gouty-stem tree (_Adansonia Gregorii_), when boiled up with a little sugar, acted as a powerful antiscorbutic among the sailors of our little schooner, completely curing the disease, and leaving only the unavoidable weakness, from which, with the advantage of better food, they gradually recovered. Millet of various kinds, known under the general denomination of Kafir corn, can be purchased from most of the Kafir and Bechuana tribes. It may be eaten boiled with meat, but should be previously husked in a wooden mortar, and would be better and more digestible if it were also bruised. We have ground it to a kind of rough meal in a coffee-mill, but found that it would not knead up into cakes without a little European or colonial flour to bind it. Sometimes the native women bruise it to meal in their wooden mortars, and in times of scarcity gather the seeds of several wild grasses, which they treat in the same manner.

This meal will not make bread in our sense of the word, but it will make a very good mess, something between bread and pap or porridge, called "maassa." An earthen pot with water is set upon the fire, and when the water boils a little meal is dropped in and stirred, more and more is then gradually added and stirred until the mess thickens, and is served up like a very dense paste. A very little soup or meat gravy makes it agreeable enough.

Maize or Indian corn is very extensively grown in Africa, and most other warm countries, and nothing can be more delicious than the young ears, either boiled or roasted in their sheath, the leaves of which everyone strips off for himself when it comes to table, spreading a little butter on the ear according to taste; it is perfect etiquette in this case to take the ear up in both hands just as you would pick a bone, and bite the grains off; indeed, the young corn cannot be properly eaten in any other manner.

Maize grains, when in the milk stage, can be preserved for future use in the following manner: The heads are first cut from the stalk, the covering of leaves and the tassel are then stripped off, and all the grains broken from the cob or core with the fingers into a shallow basket; a wide pit is then dug in the earth, and red hot stones and embers are cast in until the bottom and sides of the pit are thoroughly heated. All the stones and ashes are then removed, and all dust brushed away with green branches. A quantity of maize leaves are now brought and made use of to line the pit, and form a sort of nest for the reception of the maize, which is covered with a thick layer of leaves and left until baked. The grain subjected to this process, instead of becoming parched and dry, remains sweet, and when boiled with meat much resembles green peas.

The ground nut, such as is brought from Sierra Leone, is obtainable in many parts. It may be eaten raw, but is better slightly roasted. The Portuguese make a very nice confect of it, and it contains so much essential oil that one nut will burn with a clear flame, like a wax candle, for fully a minute. This oil makes it one of the best substitutes for coffee we know of. Slightly roasted and ground, and infused in the ordinary manner, it is exceedingly good. Most of the indigenous grains and grasses are also used, but some of them only act as a kind of vegetable charcoal to give a toast-and-water like colour to the morning beverage. We have frequently tried the beans of various species of mimosa, and have found them valuable in exact proportion to the quantity of essential oil contained in them. The dwarf shrubs, carrying generally the largest beans, were the best, and we should think the diminutive tree, scarcely 18in. high, and bearing a pod more than a foot long, called "Eland's boontjie," would be best of all. At other times we have used burnt pumpkin, but this produced rather a kind of vegetable soup.

{Uses of tea.}

Tea is one of the most valuable and important stores carried by the explorer or traveller, and an ample supply should always be taken. We prefer the Australian method of tea-making to any other; and, whether with our brass lota pot or tin quart mug and pint cup, proceed in the same manner to brew it. We first pour as much water as we think requisite in the pot, put it on the fire, and raise it to the boiling point; then take it off and add tea in proportion to the number to be brewed for, covering down the vessel with an inverted tea bowl until the tea has drawn; it is then fit for use. By adopting this plan the tea for the early morning's start need not be made the night before; a few chips, sticks, dead leaves, or a lamp, will serve to give heat enough to boil a well-blackened pot; and a very few minutes will suffice, while the packs are being arranged, to prepare a bowl of warm tea, which, with a little bread or native cake, will serve as a stand-by until the regular breakfast hour. For a very long time it was our custom when in India to strike tent at 2 A.M. and march at 3, in order to avoid the heat; but we never omitted our bowl of tea.

Among the natives of Chinese Tartary extensive use is made of brick tea, not only as an article of diet, but as a medium of currency and exchange.

This curious preparation is commonly made use of by travellers and the lower orders throughout the length and breadth of Tartary, Tibet, and the Kirghis steppes. The bricks vary in size according to the particular district in which they are made; but to be of convenient and saleable character they should be about 1ft. long, 6in. wide, and from 1in. to 1-1/2in. thick. To make tea-bricks, all the late shoots, imperfectly-formed leaves, and immature buds to be found in the tea plantations, after the tea harvest is over, are collected; they are then subjected to the action of water until soft and pliable, bullock's blood is then added, the mass is then thoroughly mixed and incorporated, and, when of a tough, firm consistence, it is divided into portions of convenient size, which are pressed into brick moulds prepared for them. When turned from the moulds the bricks are laid on hurdles, and subjected to heat until dry. They are then fit for the market, to which the finished commodity is usually carried in sheepskin bags. When required for use, the portion to be consumed is broken from the brick with the head of a hatchet or a heavy stone; the fragments thus detached are broken up small between two flat stones, and then rubbed between the palms of the hands until fine enough for preparation.

There are several ways of preparing brick tea for consumption. One is to place the rough powder in a pot or kettle with water, and boil it until a red decoction is formed, a little salt is then thrown in, which causes a slight effervescence to be set up; when this ceases, and the liquid becomes tranquil, and of dark colour, milk is added. If it is desired to make the tea thus prepared more than commonly attractive to the visitor, butter is added. Sometimes a mixture, called "Imitanka," is made from it; this is formed by adding a quantity of clotted cream which has become sour to the boiled tea water, and when it has boiled a short time, adding salt and a bowlful of millet seed flour. The whole mixture is then boiled for about three-quarters of an hour, and is ready for the table, or rather floor of the tent, on which it is usual to sit. Barley meal and suet added to the tea water makes a kind of gruel, or stirabout, which is much relished by the wandering Tartars, and appears to agree vastly well with them. Brick tea is not only used as we have described, but is common among Tartar dealers, and those who attend the fairs held for the purpose of sale and exchange as a medium of currency, just as the beaver skin and the Dentalium shell are by the North West Indians of America.

Almost every country has its own peculiar method of preserving animal food for future use. The salting of meat, and the consequent deterioration of its nourishing properties, must be well known to all who have made long voyages, unless, indeed, they have always sailed in first-class ships, where the appearance of salt junk upon the cabin table is quite exceptional. Where it can conveniently be carried, we think that boiled fresh beef, preserved in air-tight tin canisters, is by far the best, as being in effect equal to fresh killed meat cooked in the same manner. We have seen considerable quantities of this meat used after being carried by land and sea about the world for years, and we do not remember that we have ever opened a tin which was not in good order, and perfectly fit for food. And we should also think that in many places where immense herds of cattle almost encumber the land they live upon, this method of transporting their flesh to a better market would be well worthy the attention of their owners. There are many variations in the method of preserving, but we believe the simplest and most effective to be as under. Kill the animal by a rifle shot behind the ear or otherwise, skin it, and hoist it by block and tackle to a convenient tree, then commencing at the hind-legs, which are of course uppermost, strip off all the flesh from the bones, leaving the skeleton still hanging, cut the flesh into pieces as nearly 6lb. in weight as possible, put them into a cauldron with very little water, and boil them well. Have a number of cylindrical 6lb. tins, and set them ready in a trough of boiling water, kept hot by a steam pipe or other available means; put a piece of beef in each tin, with liquor enough nearly to fill it, and then solder on the top, which should have a hole in it; when all the tins of meat are thus far advanced, pour in at the small hole liquor enough to fill the tin, clean round the edges of the hole, and close it with a drop of hot solder, so as to seal the tin hermetically; then remove them from the water, dry the outsides, paint them with any coarse colour, mixed with boiled oil, and they are ready for exportation to any part of the world.

Where meat in this form cannot be carried, perhaps the next best method is to cut it into strips or flakes, and dry it thoroughly in the sun, with, or more frequently without, a little salt upon the surface. Meat by this process loses some of its nutritious quality, but it is so conveniently kept and carried, and so little liable to damage, that there is scarce a country in the world having sun enough for the purpose when it is not adopted in North America. The flesh of the buffalo, or bison, and in South America that of the domestic, or rather half-wild, ox, is used; and Sir F. Head, in his rough notes of the pampas, remarks that a man can live longer on dried beef and water than he can on any other unvaried diet.

The trappers and traders of North West America make extensive use of a kind of prepared food known as "pemmican," and very large quantities of it are manufactured on the buffalo range. It is thus made. Buffalo flesh is cut with the hunting knife into convenient flakes and flat steaks or layers. These are either hung in the sun or near a slow fire until dry, when the dried meat is ground between two stones until sufficiently fine. A bag is then made of buffalo hide, with the hair side out, and the preserved flesh, after having been thoroughly mixed with hot fat, is well rammed and pressed in. The bag is then securely stitched up, and the pemmican allowed to cool and harden. When required for use, it is cut from the mass like hard sausage meat, and either eaten cold, or, when mixed with flour or meal, a sort of thick porridge, called by the trappers "robiboo," is made from it.

{Food to preserve.}

In many of the Australian islands and New Zealand vast quantities of sea-fowl (the sooty petrel or mutton bird, especially) are captured for food by the sailors and natives. These birds visit the islands annually in vast flocks, arriving generally about the latter end of November, for the purpose of depositing their eggs, of which each hen bird lays one or two, about size of ordinary goose eggs, and somewhat similar in flavour. The cock bird takes charge of the nest during the day and the hen by night, taking in turn the duty of going to sea for food. Perfect warrens, like those of rabbits, are formed by these birds, who burrow in the soft ground for a distance of 2ft. or 3ft., and there form their nests. Some of the islands are so thickly and completely honeycombed by these feathered miners as to render walking a very unsafe proceeding.

The collection of the eggs and young birds from the depths of the holes is a task usually assigned to the native women, who not uncommonly find a snake coiled up where the young petrel should be. When a large catch is determined on for preservation and the obtainment of feathers, a number of bird hunters assemble and construct a sort of hedge or fence a short distance from the beach, and just before daybreak, when the birds, about to proceed to sea to feed, are out of their retreats, a sudden rush is made by the whole assembled party of birdcatchers who, with the most hideous yells and cries, drive the throngs of waddling, flapping victims, who cannot rise from the ground to fly, towards the centre of the fatal barrier, where a deep pit has been prepared for their reception. Into this they are forced, layer on layer, until they literally suffocate each other in their vain endeavours to escape from the treacherous pitfall. The feathers, when plucked from the birds, are worth about 3d. per pound, and it requires the joint plumage of about twenty to produce that quantity. Thirty bags of feathers, constituting the cargoes of two trading boats, were obtained by the sacrifice of 18,000 birds. A portion of the birds are preserved by dry smoking, and are extensively made use of. Some of the New Zealand tribes, by whom this bird is called the "Titi," have recourse to a most ingenious and effective method of preservation for it and some other articles of food. The petrels, after having been carefully plucked, have all their bones removed. They are then cooked over the fire in large shallow dishes or platters, made from the bark of the "Totara" tree, and when sufficiently done are placed in the natural bottles or flasks formed of a species of seaweed, like a huge variety of the bladder-wrack (_Fucus vesiculosus_) of our own coasts. The heated fat from the birds is then poured in, and the sea-bottle securely tied up. Provisions treated in this manner remain perfectly good for a very long time, being completely excluded from both air and moisture. The Indians of Vancouver Island make use of seaweed bottles, made like those just described, to store up fish oil in.

{Hints on large game.}

In Africa, the flesh of the ox and of all the game animals--from the antelope and buffalo to the giraffe, and the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, and elephant--is used under the general name of "biltong." The scene, when one of the larger animals has been shot, and is found perhaps next morning by the hunter's native followers, is exciting enough. In the case of an elephant which has lain till ten or eleven o'clock, when the heat of the sun will have begun to form gases in the stomach, and to distend the carcase till a man may tread upon it as he would on an unyielding rock, the man, whose duty it is to make the first incision, approaches cautiously, taking care, if possible, not to to come leeward, and especially to see that his retreat is clear; then reaching forward at the full length of his arm, he drives his spear into the abdomen, leaping backward at the same time to avoid the gaseous and liquid discharge which ensues. The rest wait until the carcase has collapsed, and the stench is somewhat dissipated, and then rush in and commence the cutting up. The thick skin is torn in broad planks from the sides, groups of men mount upon the ribs, and, squatting there upon their hams, use their assegais in cutting down through the flesh; others, having effected a breach in the thinnest part of the abdomen, enter and tear out the internal dainties, and then, assegais in hand, begin to cut the flesh from the inside of the ribs--an operation, it will be readily believed, involving no small risk to these who happen to be sitting just above them, and who not unfrequently receive a hint that the human skin is by no means invulnerable. The surrounding bushes now begin to be covered with blanket-like flaps of skin and meat, by membranes and sheets of the internal fat, and from every fire arises the savoury odour of some tit bit, being hastily grilled to appease the appetite while the pot which has been filled with the first cuttings of the flesh is being boiled. Long, straight poles are next cut, and laid across like rails from fork to fork of other trees, and on these the flesh, cut into strips from 3ft. to 16ft. long, and about two fingers thick, is hung to dry, care being taken not to hang it so closely as to prevent the air passing freely between the pieces. Two or three days will generally be enough to dry the meat, which is then taken down, and either tied up in bundles if to be carried by men, or stowed as loosely as possible in the waggon, being opened and spread out at every halt for the first few days to guard against the possibility of putrefaction; further cooking is not absolutely necessary. The biltong may be bruised up with a yoke skei, or the head of an axe, and eaten raw, or it may be broiled and bruised as before, or if boiled it may be put into a native mortar and pounded with a pestle or a yoke skei until the fibres are thoroughly separated, and much trouble is saved in the way of mastication. With the addition of a little cinnamon or other spice, dried peaches, shreds of dried onion, or any little thing to vary the taste, this is by no means a bad dish for hungry men.

In all cases, however, it is well to make a proportion of the meat carry itself; and here the traveller will be called upon to exercise great caution. It will never do to purchase at random a number of animals of various species, because, in the first place, the different kinds will not herd together, and, therefore, each will require separate attendants; and, secondly, because the country to be explored may be unfavourable to the existence of some of them. In North Australia we took no cattle, because we had reason to think that plants poisonous to them abounded there. Of our flock of sheep we took none beyond the standing camp, and even of them we lost more than three-fourths by the disasters of the sea and river voyage before they were landed. If men would make up their minds to eat horseflesh, we believe it would be more economical, and would give less trouble to the exploring party, who might purchase at the outset a considerable additional number of horses, young of course, but at least sufficiently docile to carry a pack and travel with the others; and when the burden of one of these had been eaten off, to shoot him, and convert as much of his flesh as could not be eaten in the first two days into biltong.

In many of the later expeditions camels have been used more or less successfully, and their flesh has also served as food to the explorers on emergencies.

In South Africa oxen are so generally used that no one thinks of undertaking a journey of any extent without them, and, not less as a matter of course, his vehicle is the ox waggon; horses, as many as the traveller can afford, also accompany him; but, if he is really a hunter, these are seldom or never ridden until their energies are required for active service, but leisurely driven on by a Hottentot lad, and carefully tended, so as to husband their strength and keep them in good condition till they are really wanted. Sheep and goats are taken because most of the native tribes are so essentially pastoral that these animals may be cheaply purchased from them; and young lads, willing to drive them, may be hired for a trifling reward in addition to their food.

Nevertheless, all these animals are liable to casualties on the road: the goats or sheep may die from feeding on the beans that fall from the kameel doorn and various acacias; the stud may be thinned off by the annual horse sickness, even though the traveller may have taken the precaution to buy, at a higher price, what are called salted horses--i.e., such as have once had the sickness--for it is well known that if a horse takes the sickness in a district where it prevails in a mild form, which is generally the case in such as have been for a considerable time colonised, it will not protect him in the remote wilderness where the disease still maintains its unmitigated strength. It is, therefore, always advisable to ask not only whether the horse has had the sickness, but where he passed through the ordeal. We have known as much as 100l. given by a hunter for a horse up to his weight and warranted to be salted, with the proviso, however, that if the horse died of sickness during the first season his price was to be reduced by 60l.

{Hints on food gathering.}