204 APPENDIX. 



less and the starcli increases. There is no foocLproduct which com- 

 pares with it in resisting drought. Even in the dryest seasons, it is 

 like other trees *' planted by the rivers of water," and whole fields are 



+ 



green with its foliage, while all else is brown with the scorching sun. 

 There are two varieties of the manioc, known as the sweet and the 

 bitter; the first of which may be eaten with impunity, while the 

 latter has a bitterish, milky Juice, which is poisonous from containing 

 prussic acid. But tbese roots are grated or otherwise reduced to a 

 pomace, and then suspended in grass bags, when the poisonous juice 

 drips out, or, being volatile, is dissipated by the heat in baking bread 

 from it. The bitter variety is the principal kind used in British 

 Gruiana, while the sweet is the one mostly cixlfcivated in Africa. The 

 tapioca which comes into our houses is almost purs starch, and is 

 made from the expressed juice of the root, which, on standing, deposits 

 in the form of powder, and which, if dried without heat, will remain 

 so. If heat be applied, it takes the form of the irregular masses we 

 are accustomed to see. 



The root has the taste of chestnuts, and may be eaten raw. It is 

 delicious, wholesome food when roasted in hot embers or broiled. 

 If soaked till the skin can be di'awn off and the fibrous heart drawn 

 out and then dried, it makes good bread ; or, if broken up and fried 

 In palm oil and salted, it is a good relish, and the Africans call it 

 lomha. 



An extremely white and fine flour, called /wZ-a, is made from the 

 soaked and dried roots, and it is the chief food in Angola. 



The flour makes a thick porridge or mush— /z/?!;"^. The water is 

 boiled and salted and set off the fire; after which Jiiha is stirred in 

 until it can be cut into blocks, which may be taken in the hands and 

 eaten with molasses or dipped into chicken broth. 



The staff of life on the Congo is qitanga, or bread made from the 

 manioc by soaking, peeling, and pounding the soaked root into a 

 pomace, and kneading and making into dough-loaves of four by six 

 or ten inches. These loaves are wrapped in thin, tough leaves and 

 bound, and then boiled in large earthen pots. Then the bread is ready 

 for use ; or it may be sliced and browned or broiled, as one prefers. 



Farina from the manioc is prepared by grating the green ropt, dry. 

 ing iu the sun, with all the starch and tapioca in it, browning it 



boiled beans. 



into 



