“We had many visitors to the farm.  In Pioneer countries hospitality is a necessity of life not to the travellers alone but to the settlers.  A visitor is a friend, he brings new, good or bad, which is bread to the hungry minds in lonely places.  A real friend who comes to the house is a heavenly messenger. . .”  Having lived in South America, I understand this.  NOTHING is a better gift than a visit!

This chapter is about a Ngoma (Swahili for drums) or dance.  I found this Ngoma on YouTube.  There is a lot of shak’n going on, and it seems very similar to the Ngoma in this chapter.

Post Res Perditas – Latin for “after occurence ruin.”  It is also the title of a book by Salvatore Bottari (1678 – 1713), but I couldn’t find out what the book was about.

p. 165:  panis angelorum – Latin for “angelic bread.”  from Wikipedia.  Panis angelicus is the penultimate strophe of the hymn Sacris solemniis written by Saint Thomas Aquinas for the Feast of Corpus Christi as part of a complete liturgy of the Feast including prayers for the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.
You will enjoy this Andrea Bocelli singing Panis Angelicus.

p. 165:  Saint Frances – from Wikipedia.

Saint Francis of Assisi (born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone; 1181/1182 – October 3, 1226)^[2] was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men’s Franciscan Order, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis.^[3] St. Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history.^[3]

Francis was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant in Assisi, and he lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi.^[4] While going off to war in 1204, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life.^[4] On a pilgrimage to Rome, Francis begged with the beggars at St. Peter’s.^[4] The experience moved him to live in poverty.^[4] Francis returned home, began preaching on the streets, and soon amassed a following. His order was endorsed by Pope Innocent III in 1210. He then founded the Order of Poor Clares, which was an enclosed order for women, as well as the Third Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance. In 1219, he went to Egypt where crusaders were besieging Damietta, hoping to find martyrdom at the hands of the Muslims. By this point, the Franciscan Order had grown to such an extent that its primitive organizational structure was no longer sufficient. He returned to Italy to organize the order. Once his organization was endorsed by the Pope, he withdrew increasingly from external affairs. In 1223, Francis arranged for the first Christmas manger scene.^[4] In 1224, he received the stigmata,^[4] making him the first person to bear the wounds of Christ’s Passion.^[5] He died in 1226 while singing Psalm 141.

On July 16, 1228, he was pronounced a saint by Pope Gregory IX. He is known as the patron saint of animals, the environment and one of the two patrons of Italy (with Catherine of Siena), and it is customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of 4 October.

Saint Clare – from Wikipedia.  Clare of Assisi (sometimes spelled Clair, Claire, etc.) (July 16, 1194 – August 11, 1253), born Chiara Offreduccio, is an Italian saint and one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. She founded the Order of Poor Ladies, a monastic religious order for women in the Franciscan tradition, and wrote their Rule of Life—the first monastic rule known to have been written by a woman. Following her death, the order she founded was renamed in her honor as the Order of Saint Clare, commonly referred to today as the Poor Clares.

p. 168:  . . .and the bold cavalier-like cockspurs made of Colobus-monkey skin. . . – cavalier = a gentleman trained in arms and horse riding.  cockspurs = the spur on the leg of a rooster.  Lolobus-monkey skin =

p. 169:  the supply of tembu in the calabash – I believe that tembu is an alcoholic drink, but that is only from the context of the sentence.  Calabash is a gourd.

p. 173:  . . .sailing to Volaia. – I am not sure why she keeps making reference to this lake and mountain in Austria but near the Italian border.  She may be making a reference to something else.

The next guest is A Visitor from Asia.  Just like the Kikuyu at the Ngoma were not your “typical” guests, neither is the next visitor.

See you then,

–rebecca