If one searches the Internet, one finds more than one list of fahfee numbers, and they do not match each other, so it seems that there were local variations, which makes sense, as there was nothing to stop the guy running the racket from inventing his own list of dreams pertinent to his client base, and assigning numbers to them. There is a well-known photograph at https://artthrob.co.za/02dec/images/goldblatt07b.jpg
that purports to be domestic servants waiting for the fahfee runner. See postscript.
My mother, who was born in Johannesburg in 1906, told me that her grandmother ran a hotel, I think in Roodepoort, and my mother spent a lot of time there circa 1910. The head waiter was Indian, and he had a young son. The nearby grocer was Chinese, and he too had a young son. The washerwoman was African, and she had a daughter. Because of their similar ages, the four children were playmates, and if one of them had a farthing they would buy one lolly called a niggerball, which was very hard and multi-coloured in layers. When niggerballs were made, the layers were added to a kernal, which was always orange in colour, and a not as good to the taste (a bit bitter). Anyhow, whoever provided the farthing sucked off the outer black coating and the first layer after that, then the next child sucked away the next colour, and so on.
Because the African girl's mother was dirt poor, the girl never had a farthing. Consequently, because she made no contribution to buying niggerballs, she always got the orange centre.
