He Slaughtered An Ox For Us,
And Furnished His Mother And Her Maids With Manioc Roots,
To Prepare Farina For The Four Or Five Days Of Our Journey To Cassange,
And Never Even Hinted At Payment.
My wretched appearance must have excited
his compassion.
The farina is prepared by washing the roots well,
then rasping them down to a pulp. Next, this is roasted slightly
on a metal plate over a fire, and is then used with meat as a vegetable.
It closely resembles wood-sawings, and on that account is named "wood-meal".
It is insipid, and employed to lick up any gravy remaining on one's plate.
Those who have become accustomed to it relish it even after they have returned
to Europe.
The manioc cultivated here is of the sweet variety; the bitter,
to which we were accustomed in Londa, is not to be found very extensively
in this fertile valley. May is the beginning of winter,
yet many of the inhabitants were busy planting maize;
that which we were now eating was planted in the beginning of February.
The soil is exceedingly fertile, of a dark red color,
and covered with such a dense, heavy crop of coarse grass,
that when a marauding party of Ambonda once came for plunder
while it was in a dried state, the Bangala encircled the common enemy
with a fire which completely destroyed them. This, which is related
on the authority of Portuguese who were then in the country,
I can easily believe to be true, for the stalks of the grass
are generally as thick as goose-quills, and no flight could be made
through the mass of grass in any direction where a footpath does not exist.
Probably, in the case mentioned, the direction of the wind was such
as to drive the flames across the paths, and prevent escape along them.
On one occasion I nearly lost my wagon by fire, in a valley where the grass
was only about three feet high.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 556 of 1070
Words from 159173 to 159507
of 306638
