482 ' PRODUCTS. 



are permitted, however, to rear a few goats, which they do 

 less for the sake of the milk and flesh than for the skins, 

 Tvhich are converted into sleeping rugs, and carosses for wear. 

 They also keep a few barn-door fowls, but apparently of a 

 very ordinary breed. 



They derive their chief subsistence from the produce of the 

 soil, which is fertile, yielding the necessaries of life in abun- 

 dance, and with little labor. A month or two before the 

 rainy season the ground for cultivation is selected, cleared, 

 and slightly worked by a small, short hoe, the only agricul- 

 tural implement I have seen used by the Bayeye in tilling. 

 After the first heavy rains they begin to sow the corn, of 

 which there are two l-dnds indigenous to the country, name- 

 I /, the common " CaiTie," and another sort, very small-grain- 

 ed, and not unlike canary-seed — a description which is akin, 

 as I am informed, to the " badjera" of India. This is more 

 nutritious than the other, and, when well ground, makes ex- 

 cellent flour. Tobacco, calabashes, watermelons, pumpkins, 

 beans, and small peas are also grown, as well as different 

 kinds of edible earth-fruits, of which the oiengora (motu-o- 

 hatsi of the Bechuanas, I believe) may be mentioned in par- 

 ticular. This is a sort of bean, having its pods under ground. 

 It is well known to the Mozambiques ; is extensively grown 

 by the black population in Mauritius, and is, I am told, no 

 uncommon article of importation at the Cape of Good Hope. 



Moreover, the country, as before said, produces a variety 

 of wild fruit-trees, which serve no less to beautify the scene- 

 ry than to afford good and wholesome sustenance to the in- 

 habitants. Among the most handsome and useful trees, the 

 moshoma stands, perhaps, pre-eminent. On account of the 

 great height, the straightness of the trunk, and the distance 

 at which it begins to branch out, the fruit can only be gath- 

 ered when it falls to the ground. It is then exposed to the 

 sun for some time, and, when sufficiently dried, is put into 

 a hollow piece of wood (a sort of mortar) and pulverized. It 



