Their Slaves Work Their
Large Plantations, And Bring Up To Them Magnificent Yams, Ready
Prepared Ogooma, Sweet-Potatoes, Papaw, Etc., Not Forgetting That
Delicacy Odeaka Cheese; This Is Not An Exclusive Inspiration Of
Theirs, For The M'pongwe And The Benga Use It As Well.
It is made
from the kernel of the wild mango, a singularly beautiful tree of
great size and stately spread of foliage.
I can compare it only in
appearance and habit of growth to our Irish, or evergreen, oak, but
it is an idealisation of that fine tree. Its leaves are a softer,
brighter, deeper green, and in due season (August) it is covered -
not ostentatiously like the real mango, with great spikes of bloom,
looking each like a gigantic head of mignonette - but with small
yellow-green flowers tucked away under the leaves, filling the air
with a soft sweet perfume, and then falling on to the bare shaded
ground beneath to make a deep-piled carpet. I do not know whether
it is a mango tree at all, for I am no botanist: but anyhow the
fruit is rather like that of the mango in external appearance, and
in internal still more so, for it has a disproportionately large
stone. These stones are cracked, and the kernel taken out. The
kernels are spread a short time in the shade to dry; then they are
beaten up into a pulp with a wooden pestle, and the pulp put into a
basket lined carefully with plantain leaves and placed in the sun,
which melts it up into a stiff mass.
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