76 A DESCRIPTION OF THE WANYORO. 



privileged in this respect, for they always eat with their 

 husbands. The boys eat with the women. Meat is preferred 

 cooked with vegetables, especially unripe bananas. The pots 

 used for cooking are round, and exactly similar to the water- 

 vessels, but smaller. The food, when ready, is poured into 

 boat-shaped dishes standing on feet, which are placed on a mat ; 

 the company gather round them, and eat with their hands ; 

 spoons, however, cut out of gourd-shells, are in use. There are 

 altogether three meals in the day. After eating, in which the 

 Wanyoro are moderate, a strip of wet banana bark is used to 

 wipe the hands. The fireplace used for cooking is often situated 

 in a small compartment walled off by reeds (in Uganda they 

 have separate huts for cooking, called fumbiro). It consists of 

 five stones so placed that the longest and broadest is in the 

 middle, and the others stand two in a line to the right and left 

 of it ( : o * ), so that several vessels can be put on the fire 

 at once. 



For storing corn (eleusine) clean holes in the ground (hi- 

 hutta) are used. Fish is split open, cleaned, and dried over a 

 smoky fire ; this is the method of curing employed on both 

 lakes. 



The drinks used in Unyoro are sdndi, mw^nge, and mervua. 

 Sdndi is the juice of ripe bananas, freshly pressed out, and little, 

 if at all, fermented. It is a pleasant drink, resembling wine, 

 and slightly sparkling, and is more especially affected by the 

 ladies ; when it comes into the market at all it is rather 

 dear. Mwdnge is prepared by mashing bananas ripened arti- 

 ficially over a fire or underground, adding water and roasted 

 durrah, and allowing the liquor to stand until it has become 

 highly fermented. This beverage is sour, and very intoxi- 

 cating. Its manufacture is described by Speke and Grant, 

 who also give illustrations of the preparation of the durrah, 

 or eleusine beer (mervtca), used all over Africa. Corn is not 

 malted here. The use of mwdnge is so universal in Unyoro, 

 and particularly in Uganda, that I believe many people never 

 drink water. The Wanyoro take enormous quantities of it, 

 and even little children drink it with the greatest delight. 

 Yet I have never seen drunken men here as in Europe. 

 Mwdnge is either drunk from gourd-bowls or sucked up from 



