NARCOTICS AND INTOXICANTS. 207 



Nicotiana virginiana) is not grown on a large scale, but its 

 consumption is general, and even little children are smokers. 

 The enormous cliibuk is made out of the middle rib of a 

 banana-leaf, with a mouthpiece made of a twisted leaf stuck 

 into the broad end of it. Usually only two pulls are taken, 

 although the tobacco is very good and sweet ; but it is taken 

 for granted that the servant who carries away this huge pipe 

 should also take a pull. Hookahs made out of gourds are 

 occasionally used. Chewing tobacco has been introduced by 

 the Danagla, but the custom has never really taken root. 



The people, however, chew the cola-nut, a flat fruit of a 

 beautiful pink colour, enveloped by a white covering. The 

 cola-nut tree is often found in the broad " gallery " woods of 

 the country, and is a tall and stately plant ; the fruit resembles 

 a short thick banana, with a greenish-yellow shell, split length- 

 ways, and containing two rows of large flat seeds in a strong 

 white covering. When these have been removed, pieces of 

 the pinky pulp are cut off and eaten, generally while smoking. 

 The taste is rather bitter, and produces a slight flow of saliva. 

 Some extol the fruit as a cure for congestion, giddiness, and 

 dysentery, others say that it is a good aphrodisiac. I have not 

 succeeded in proving its specific action. 



The taste for beer is universal. It is usually prepared from 

 bananas, almost in the same way as in Uganda, more rarely 

 from eleusine. A drink like wine, rather pleasant and effer- 

 vescing, is obtained by macerating dry bananas in water, and 

 allowing them to ferment slightly. It usually causes a slight 

 attack of diarrhoea in strangers, just as eating dry bananas 

 causes colic. On this account, the Monbuttu recommend that 

 the dried bananas be dipped in palm-oil before eating them. 

 Occasionally one is offered palm- wine obtained from the Raphia 

 and oil-palms. It is obtained by cutting out the pedicel, and 

 then collecting the sap in a jar, which is covered with a lid to 

 protect its contents from the rain. This operation, of course, 

 would ultimately destroy the tree, and must not, therefore, be 

 repeated too frequently. The oil-palm is of great value, for 

 fatty substances are very rare in the country, whilst the 

 demand is very brisk. Fat is here obtained from termites, 

 mbereJcai (a kind of gourd), sesame, Hyptis, the oil-palm and 



