“Ki! All be grass, master! All the ground find him plenty good. The eye sees not sand anywhere; not even between the blades.”
“Here be plenty plenty food for Rakumi” (camels).
“In the desert this be all sand for sure, and no grass. So, so, all time Allah give plenty good things for this country.”
On another occasion I took them out to look on while ferreting rabbits. I had also my retriever with me. When the first rabbit was shot, however, there was no need to send the dog to fetch it, for there was a wild scramble on the part of both the boys, who reached the “bunny” together, and straightway proceeded to cut its throat in true Mohammedan fashion. A second rabbit was treated in the same way, and then the two worthies were quite ready to set off home.
Half an hour later, while the rabbits were still warm, I found my followers beside their camp-fires in the yard with their prizes skinned and pierced on sticks, roasting before the blaze. This was their idea of a real feast of fresh meat, and the first they had had an opportunity of enjoying to the full since they had landed in the country.
But they were never difficult to please with food, and their usual dish, eaten twice a day, about 11 a.m. and again in the evening, consisted usually of butcher meat mixed with rice, potatoes, cloves, nutmeg, and plenty of olive oil. This strangely seasoned mixture was of their own choosing and was:
“Sweet past food for Kano.”
My wife tried to induce them to eat with knives and forks, but they were much more at home with their fingers.
Sheep are the choice animals for ceremonial sacrifice in their own land. Hence they cast longing eyes on the black-faced variety that pastured on the hills near my home, and kept asking me to kill one for them for Sadaka (almsgiving); and so that they might take the skin to Nigeria:
“To show all the people for Kano the plenty fine hair [wool] that live for Rago [sheep] in England.”