XIV RETURN TO LAKE RUDOLPH 329 



The men, including this old gentleman and even Labugo 

 himself often, used to go out daily with the cattle to protect 

 them from marauders while grazing. They owned a good 

 many, thanks partly no doubt to their recent victory over 

 their invading neighbours and the consequent raiding of the 

 vanquished enemy's stock. This was indirectly advantageous 

 to me, as I was able to buy milk, a rare luxury in Central 

 Africa, the only nourishment I could take for about the first 

 month of my illness ; indeed, if it had not been for that, I do 

 not see how I could possibly have pulled through. 



I found it necessary to procure special calabashes for my 

 portion to be milked into, or I could not drink the milk. 

 The universal method of cleansing the utensil into which a 

 cow is milked, among most Central African tribes, is by 

 turning it upside down over a lighted stick of a particular 

 kind, thus confining the smoke, which is peculiarly pungent, 

 and causing the vessel to absorb it. It then imparts its 

 pungent flavour to the milk, which sometimes, after this treat- 

 ment, fairly burns one's throat. The owners of the cows 

 objected to milking them into any tin or dish of European 

 manufacture, declaring that their milk would dry up ; but I 

 got over the difficulty by procuring new calabashes, which 

 were sent with the payment for the milk always at milking- 

 time and afterwards washed. Another luxury I was able to 

 buy here was coffee ; and very good coffee, too. It is not 

 grown here, but procured from some natives living in the hills 

 not far off, with whom those of Kere were on visiting terms. 

 It cannot be grown very far away, because it is so cheap ; 

 when any was brought for sale a string of beads would buy 

 almost as much coffee as millet. It is dried in the cherry, 

 but my cook easily cleaned it by pounding in a wooden 

 mortar. The natives of all the little tribes around the head 

 of the lake are very fond of it, though what pleasure they 

 can get out of drinking it in the way they cook it I cannot 

 imagine. The coffee, just as it is in the dry cherry, is boiled. 



