The farm-houses in the Sneeuwberg, and in most of the colder districts
of the colony, are usually of the following description:--The house
resembles a large barn divided into two or three apartments. One of these
is the kitchen, which also serves for the sitting and eating apartment.
In the others the family sleep; while, in the outer one already
mentioned, visiters and travellers are accommodated with a rush mat, a
feather bed, and a coverlet spread on the clay floor. In this situation
I have often enjoyed, after a fatiguing day's ride, the most balmy
repose; while a swarthy train of slaves and Hottentots were moving round
the embers of the fire, wrapped in their sheepskin mantles, and dogs,
cats, and fowls were trampling over my body. The more wealthy and long
settled families, however, usually have the kitchen separate from their
sitting-room. In such houses curtained beds, and other articles of
decent furniture, are not unfrequently found; but the poorer classes
are content with a few thong-bottomed chairs and stools, two or three
wagon-chests, and a couple of deal tables. At one of the latter sits
the mistress of the house, with a tea-urn and a chafing-dish before her,
dealing out every now and then _tea-water_, or coffee, and elevating
her sharp shrill voice occasionally to keep the dilatory slaves and
Hottentots at their duty. In this same apartment is also invariably to
be seen the carcass of a sheep killed in the morning, and hung up under
the eye of the mistress, to be served out frugally for the day's
provision as it may be required. The houses, being without any ceiling,
are open to the thatch; and the rafters are generally hung full of the
ears of Indian corn, leaves or rolls of tobacco, slices of dried meat,
called _bill tongue_, &c. The last is a sort of ham from the muscular
part of the thigh of the ox, or the larger species of antelopes; it is
very convenient for carrying on journeys, and is found in the boor's
houses in every part of the colony. It is cut into very thin slices, and
eaten with bread and butter, or with bread and the melted fat of the
sheep's tail, which is a common substitute for butter; either way it is
no contemptible dish when one is a little hungry, and many a time I have
heartily enjoyed it.
A traveller, on arriving, if it does not happen to be meal-time, is
always presented with a cup of tea, without sugar, milk, or bread;
unless occasionally, when you may be favoured with a small piece of
sugar-candy out of a tin snuff-box, to be kept in your mouth to sweeten
the bitter beverage as it passes. When their tea and coffee are
exhausted, a succedaneum is found in roasted grain, prepared in the
same way as Hunt's radical coffee, which, if not very palatable, is
nevertheless a refreshment to a thirsty and weary traveller. They never
think of asking you to eat unless at meal-time; but then you are
expected to draw in your chair, and help yourself, without invitation,
in the same easy manner as one of the family. The dishes consist for
the most part of mutton stewed in sheep's-tail fat, or boiled to rags;
sometimes with very palatable soup, and a dish of boiled corn, maize, or
pumpkin. Cayenne-pepper, vinegar, and few home-made pickles, are also
usually produced to relish the simple fare, which, served up twice a
day, forms, with tea-water and the _soopie_, or dram of Cape brandy,
the amount of their luxuries. In this quarter of the colony, however, I
found every where excellent bread; and, upon the whole, the farmers of
Bruintjes-Hoogte and the Sneeuwberg appeared in much more independent
and comfortable circumstances than those along the coast.
_Thompson's Southern Africa._
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