CHAP 

 XIV. 



676 



MAIZE 



The usual method employed by the South African native 

 for preparing maize for food is to grind it into meal with 

 stones (Fig. 231) ; it is then made into porridge with boiling 

 water, and partially cooked until of a coarse bread-like nature, 

 when it is eaten alone, out of the hand, or mixed with milk 

 and eaten with the long spoons which they carve out of some 

 soft wood such as that of the maeroola-tree, Sclerocarya caffra 

 (Fig. 230). 



A favourite dish among some South African tribes is pre- 

 pared by soaking mielie meal in water for some hours, until 



Fig. 230. — Zulus eating maize-meal pap. 



fermentation has commenced, when the mixture is well stirred 

 and then strained through a sleeve or bag made of one or 

 another of the various native fibres found in different parts of 

 the country. This preparation is known to the natives of 

 some parts of South Africa as marewu. 



630. Use of Maize in Tropical Africa in 1795. — Mungo 

 Park (1) writing of the natives of the Gambia, in 1795, speaks 

 of several articles of food prepared by them from maize. The 

 most common was a sort of "pudding" called kouskous, de- 

 scribed as follows : — 



