BANTU NEGROES 673 



touched the loose drop on the last occasion, immerses it in the bowl, 

 touches it again on the mound, and so on ; so that by this method none 

 at all of the gravy is lost. The pieces of meat or fish used in making 

 the soup are allowed to remain for the end, and are then distributed so 

 that each jjerson gets at least one morsel. When the meal is over, the 

 hands are again washed. 



Plantain pulp is nourishing food. Thousands never eat anything 

 else. It does not follow that the people are not hardy because they are 

 fed on this soft, bulky food. "I have seen," writes Mr. Cunningham, 

 '' boys and men whom I have overtaken on the road start off to race my 

 bicycle, and keeping up the race for a distance of five miles without 

 effort, even at the rate of eight or nine miles an hour."' 



The favourite drink of the Baganda is " mwenge," a kind of sweet 

 beer which is made from the juice of the banana. For this purpose a 

 small kind of banana is usually employed which grows very sweet, as it 

 ripens after the bunch has been cut from the tree. This liquid, when 

 first brewed, is perfectly delicious. After twenty-four hours it begins to 

 ferment, and may become a very heady, intoxicating beer. I am not 

 aware that the Baganda make that porridge-like beer from various kinds 

 of native grain which is so common elsew'here in Africa ; nor do they, as 

 is done both to the east and to the west, make a fermented drink out of 

 honey. As soon as the Sudanese from the Upper Nile settled in the 

 country as soldiers or soldiers' followers, they introduced the bad practice 

 of distilling a heady spirit from bananas, and this when drunk by the 

 Baganda renders them quite mad. They get tipsy over their banana 

 drink when it becomes fermented, but not stupefied or frantic. 



It is said that there are no fewer than thirty-one distinct kinds of 

 bananas cultivated in the Kingdom of Uganda. Some of these are short, 

 squat bananas prized for their sweetness and beer-making qualities. 

 Others, again, are of the kind known to us as plantains— of considerable 

 length, not excessively sweet when ripe, and used by the Baganda in an 

 unripe state, and consequently without any sweetness at all The banana 

 is too much the main stai)le of food. When on rare occasions a drought 

 visits the country, and the bananas foil to bear fruit, the i)eople are on 

 the verge of starvation, since they grow a very insutficient supi)ly of any 

 other vegetable food. Sweet potatoes * are cultivated, and the English potato 

 has been adopted with approval, but it is cultivated in large quantities 

 more for sale to Europeans than to be eaten by the people themselves. 

 A little maize and still less sorghum is gi-own for food. Eleusine is rare. 

 There are practically two liarvests of everything in the year (except 



* There are said to be no less than fifty-three kinds of sweet potatoes, and twelve 

 kinds of Indian corn. 



