There Is No Necessity
For Reaping Soon, As The Roots Do Not Become Bitter And Dry
Until After Three Years.
When a woman takes up the roots,
she thrusts a piece or two of the upper stalks into the hole she has made,
draws back the soil, and a new crop is thereby begun.
The plant grows
to a height of six feet, and every part of it is useful: the leaves
may be cooked as a vegetable. The roots are from three to four inches
in diameter, and from twelve to eighteen inches long.
There are two varieties of the manioc or cassava - one sweet and wholesome,
the other bitter and containing poison, but much more speedy in its growth
than the former. This last property causes its perpetuation.
When we reached the village of Kapende, on the banks of the rivulet Lonaje,
we were presented with so much of the poisonous kind that we were obliged
to leave it. To get rid of the poison, the people place it four days
in a pool of water. It then becomes partially decomposed, and is taken out,
stripped of its skin, and exposed to the sun. When dried,
it is easily pounded into a fine white meal, closely resembling starch,
which has either a little of the peculiar taste arising from decomposition,
or no more flavor than starch. When intended to be used as food, this meal
is stirred into boiling water: they put in as much as can be moistened,
one man holding the vessel and the other stirring the porridge
with all his might. This is the common mess of the country. Though hungry,
we could just manage to swallow it with the aid of a little honey,
which I shared with my men as long as it lasted. It is very unsavory
(Scottice: wersh); and no matter how much one may eat, two hours afterward
he is as hungry as ever. When less meal is employed, the mess is exactly like
a basin of starch in the hands of a laundress; and if the starch were made
from diseased potatoes, some idea might be formed of the Balonda porridge,
which hunger alone forced us to eat. Santuru forbade his nobles to eat it,
as it caused coughing and expectoration.
Our chief guide, Intemese, sent orders to all the villages around our route
that Shinte's friends must have abundance of provisions. Our progress
was impeded by the time requisite for communicating the chief's desire
and consequent preparation of meal. We received far more food
from Shinte's people than from himself. Kapende, for instance,
presented two large baskets of meal, three of manioc roots
steeped and dried in the sun and ready to be converted into flour,
three fowls, and seven eggs, with three smoke-dried fishes;
and others gave with similar liberality. I gave to the head men
small bunches of my stock of beads, with an apology that we were now
on our way to the market for these goods. The present was always
politely received.
We had an opportunity of observing that our guides had much more etiquette
than any of the tribes farther south. They gave us food, but would not
partake of it when we had cooked it, nor would they eat their own food
in our presence. When it was cooked they retired into a thicket
and ate their porridge; then all stood up, and clapped their hands,
and praised Intemese for it. The Makololo, who are accustomed
to the most free and easy manners, held out handfuls of what they had cooked
to any of the Balonda near, but they refused to taste. They are
very punctilious in their manners to each other. Each hut has its own fire,
and when it goes out they make it afresh for themselves rather than take it
from a neighbor. I believe much of this arises from superstitious fears.
In the deep, dark forests near each village, as already mentioned,
you see idols intended to represent the human head or a lion,
or a crooked stick smeared with medicine, or simply a small pot of medicine
in a little shed, or miniature huts with little mounds of earth in them.
But in the darker recesses we meet with human faces cut in the bark of trees,
the outlines of which, with the beards, closely resemble those seen
on Egyptian monuments. Frequent cuts are made on the trees along
all the paths, and offerings of small pieces of manioc roots or ears of maize
are placed on branches. There are also to be seen every few miles
heaps of sticks, which are treated in cairn fashion, by every one throwing
a small branch to the heap in passing; or a few sticks are placed on the path,
and each passer-by turns from his course, and forms a sudden bend in the road
to one side. It seems as if their minds were ever in doubt and dread
in these gloomy recesses of the forest, and that they were striving
to propitiate, by their offerings, some superior beings residing there.
The dress of the Balonda men consists of the softened skins of small animals,
as the jackal or wild cat, hung before and behind from a girdle
round the loins. The dress of the women is of a nondescript character;
but they were not immodest. They stood before us as perfectly
unconscious of any indecorum as we could be with our clothes on.
But, while ignorant of their own deficiency, they could not
maintain their gravity at the sight of the nudity of my men behind.
Much to the annoyance of my companions, the young girls laughed outright
whenever their backs were turned to them.
After crossing the Lonaje, we came to some pretty villages,
embowered, as the negro villages usually are, in bananas, shrubs, and manioc,
and near the banks of the Leeba we formed our encampment
in a nest of serpents, one of which bit one of our men,
but the wound was harmless.
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