If Many Flies Are Present, The Flesh Should Be
Protected By The Smoke Of Fires Lighted To Windward.
When meat is thus carefully prepared, it can be used in various
ways, and is exceedingly palatable; if pounded into small pieces
like coarse sawdust, it forms an admirable material for curry and
rice.
The Arabs make a first-class dish of melach, by mixing a
quantity of pounded dried meat with a thick porridge of dhurra
meal, floating in a soup of barmian (waker), with onions, salt,
and red peppers; this is an admirable thing if the party is
pressed for time (if not too hot, as a large quantity can be
eaten with great expedition. As the Arabs are nomadic, they have
a few simple but effective arrangements for food during the
journey. For a fortnight preparatory to an expedition, the women
are busily engaged in manufacturing a supply of abrey. This is
made in several methods: there is the sour, and the sweet abrey;
the former is made of highly-fermented dhurra paste that has
turned intensely acid; this is formed into thin wafers, about
sixteen inches in diameter, upon the doka or hearth, and dried in
the sun until the abrey has become perfectly crisp; the wafers
are then broken up with the hands, and packed in bags. There is
no drink more refreshing than water poured over a handful of sour
abrey, and allowed to stand for half an hour; it becomes
pleasantly acid, and is superior to lemonade. The residue is
eaten by the Arabs: thus the abrey supplies both meat and drink.
The finest quality of sweet abrey is a very delicate affair; the
flour of dhurra must be well sifted; it is then mixed with milk
instead of water, and, without fermenting, it is formed into thin
wafers similar to those eaten with ice-creams in this country,
but extremely large; these are dried in the sun, and crushed like
the sour abrey; they will keep for months if kept dry in a
leathern bag. A handful of sweet abrey steeped in a bowl of hot
milk, with a little honey, is a luxurious breakfast; nothing can
be more delicious, and it can be prepared in a few minutes during
the short halt upon a journey. With a good supply of abrey and
dried meat, the commissariat arrangements are wonderfully
simplified, and a party can march a great distance without much
heavy baggage to impede their movements.
The flesh that is the least adapted for drying is that of the
buffalo (Bos Caffer), which is exceedingly tough and coarse.
There are two species of the Bos Caffer in Abyssinia and Central
Africa, which, similar in general appearance, differ in the
horns; that which resembles the true Bos Caffer of South Africa
has very massive convex horns that unite in front, and completely
cover the forehead as with a shield; the other variety has
massive, but perfectly flat horns of great breadth, that do not
quite unite over the os frontis, although nearly so; the flatness
of the horns continues in a rough surface, somewhat resembling
the bark of a tree, for about twelve inches; the horns then
become round, and curve gracefully inwards, like those of the
convex species.
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