The authorities were therefore compelled to devise some new food, and the resourceful genius of a Scotchman introduced a porridge called "sowens" to the Colonel's notice.
This nutriment, said to be well known in the North of Scotland, was composed of the meal which still remained in the oat-husks after they had been ground for bread and discarded as useless.

It was slightly sour, but very wholesome, and enormously popular with the white and the black population, especially with the latter, who preferred it to any other food.
I must now mention the important item of supplies and how they were eked out.

The provisions sent to Mafeking by the Cape Government before the war were only sufficient to feed 400 men for a little over a fortnight.
At that time a statement was made, to reassure the inhabitants, that the Cape Ministry held themselves personally responsible for the security of the railway in the colony.

Providentially, the firm of Weil and Company had sent vast stores to their depot in the town on their own initiative.
This firm certainly did not lose financially by their foresight, but it is a fact that Mafeking without this supply could have made no resistance whatever.

There were 9,000 human beings to feed, of which 7,000 were natives and 2,000 white people.