Our viands

Mr. Baines has also given us the mode of cooking and serving the slaughtered oxen. 'A couple of earthen cauldrons were simmering on the fire, and a stalwart warrior approaching these, took off the lids, drove a sharp stick into a filthy-looking mass, and finding it sufficiently cooked, har- pooned and hauled out the contents, and heaped them on * Baines's ' Gold Regions of South-Eastern Africa,' p. 35. 74 OUR VIANDS two great wooden dishes, laying on each some twigs that had been boiled with the meat as charms against evil influence. The cook now intoned the praises of the king, the hungry warriors joining in the chorus. One of these vessels shaped its course towards us, steered by the kneeling functionary, and he, drawing his knife, cut off large slices from which we pared the filthy outside, and found the remainder excellent. The king's supper was now ready, his " plate " was laid on the waggon chest, and his knife and fork, supplied only for himself. He invited us to draw out our own and use them freely.' * The hecatombs of this African despot throw into the shade the sacrifices of more civilised peoples, for these might be counted by units, as for example ^Eneas says : — ' The sacrifices laid On smoking altars to the gods he paid. A bull to Neptune, an oblation clue, Another bull to bright Apollo slew, A milk-white ewe the western winds to please, And one coal-black to calm the stormy seas.' In the sacrifices of the Hebrews also one or two bullocks sufficed, but it would seem from the account of Josephus, that the table of Solomon was supplied almost as liberally as that of Lo Benguela. Speaking of the tributes collected by his officers, he says : ' Now these contributed to the king's table, and to his supper every day, thirty cori of fine flour, and sixty of meal ; as also ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and a hundred fat lambs; all these were besides what were taken by hunting harts and buffaloes, and birds and fishes which were brought to the king by foreigners day by day.' * Baines's ' Gold Regions of South-Eastern Africa,' p. 36. CHRISTMAS FARE 75 By this it may be seen that men of all colours and in all ages have thought the ox a fit offering for the gods, pro- bably because they have themselves loved the savoury meat, for as Livingstone says of the Makololo, 'They have abundance of game, but in their opinion, which I am sure every Englishman will endorse, there is nothing equal to roast beef.' At present it must be allowed that as an article of food beef is better understood and more appreciated among English people than on the Continent, where the tasteless pieces of beef which have been used to make the bouillon are invariably served with sauce of various kinds, and the bif steak, so called in honour of the famous English dish, is often a piece of very coarse buffalo, or of some tough old ox which has fulfilled his term of days at the yoke. Beefsteak, or to speak more correctly, rumpsteak, is only to be had in perfection in London, for it would seem as though country butchers had not learnt the secret of the proper cut. A rumpsteak grilled in a London eating-house is not to be surpassed as a savoury dish, and may be eaten with fried onions or oyster sauce, according to taste.