BANTU NEGROES 



737 



grain. This huge kind of millet, which in the south is known as ''Kaffir 

 corn " and in the north as " dnrra," is probably of Asiatic origin, though it 

 has developed several species or sub-species under cultivation in Africa. 

 It frequently grows to a height of twelve feet. The heads of grain are often 

 very brightly coloured, and as the colours vary among the plants in the same 

 field from rose-pink to ivory-white and chestnut-black a flourishing field 

 of sorghum is quite a handsome sight. The grain of this sorghum is 

 ground into a coarse flour by means of the grinding stones. For some 

 reason this native flour, which 

 is often white and well ground, 

 is very unwholesome for Euro- 

 peans or Asiatics, almost in- 

 variably leading to diseases of 

 the bowels. It has been supposed 

 that this occurs through the 



manner in which the flour is v _ 



ground. Tiny, almost invisible 

 fragments of stone undoubtedly 

 join the flour as it is triturated, 

 and prove too much for the 

 digestion of any race but the 

 negro. Eleusine is largely re- 

 served for beer-making. Sugar- 

 cane is almost absent from the 

 Kavirondo country, honey with 

 ' this people taking the place of 

 sugar. Ground-nuts are grown 

 in the Kabarasi country in the 

 eastern part of Kavirondo. 



The Bantu Kavirondo keep 

 cattle, sheep, goats, fowls, and 

 a few dogs. Women do not 



eat fowls, sheep, or goats, and are not allowed to drink milk as a 

 beverage, though they may use it in a kind of soup mixed with flour 

 or meat. In some instances chiefs do not eat sheep or fowls. People 

 of both sexes may eat the flesh of the serval cat, and many of them 

 will eat leopard meat. They devour most other birds and beasts, except 

 the lion, vulture, crowned crane, and marabou stork. It is easy to under- 

 stand their rejecting the last-named bird as an article of diet, because 

 it is as filthy a scavenger as the vulture. Their respect for the crowned 

 crane, however, actually seems to be clue to admiration for its beauty, and 

 the bird is found in large numbers in the Kavirondo country, where it is 



394. GATE OF A WALLED TOWN 



