96 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



tinuous line down the street of sticks, and, setting 

 fire to the whole at once, boil away until the mess 

 is fit to put aside for refining : this they then do, 

 leaving the pots standing three days, when fermenta- 

 tion takes place and the liquor is fit to drink. It has 

 the strength of labourers' beer, and both sexes drink 

 it alike. This fermented beverage resembles pig- 

 wash, but is said to be so palatable and satisfying 

 for the dregs and all are drunk together that many 

 entirely subsist upon it. It is a great help to the 

 slave-masters, for without it they could get nobody 

 to till their ground ; and when the slaves are reqiiired 

 to turn the earth, the master always sits in judgment 

 with lordly dignity, generally under a tree, watching 

 to see who becomes entitled to a drop. In the even- 

 ing my attention was attracted by small processions 

 of men and women, possessed of the Phepo, or demon, 

 passing up the palisaded streets, turning into the differ- 

 ent courts, and paying each and every house by turns a 

 visit. The party advanced in slow funereal order, with 

 gently springing, mincing, jogging action, some hold- 

 ing up twigs, others balancing open baskets of grain 

 and tools on their heads, and with their bodies, arms, 

 and heads in unison with the whole hobling-bobling 

 motion, kept in harmony to a low, mixed, droning, 

 humming chorus. As the sultan's door was ap- 

 proached, he likewise rose, and, mingling in the 

 crowd, performed the same evolutions. This kind of 

 procession is common at Zanzibar : when any demon- 



