MA1ZP GkAlN AS POOD 677 



" It is made by first moistening the flour with water, and CHAP, 

 then stirring and shaking it about in a large calabash or gourd, XIV - 

 till it adheres together in small granules, resembling sago. It 

 is then put into an earthen pot, whose bottom is perforated 

 with a number of small holes ; and this pot being placed upon 

 another, the two vessels are luted together, either with a paste 

 of meal and water, or with cow's dung, and placed upon the 

 fire. In the lower vessel is commonly some animal food and 

 water, the steam or vapour of which ascends through the per- 

 forations in the bottom of the upper vessel, and softens and 

 prepares the kouskous, which is very much esteemed throughout 

 all the countries that I visited. 1 am informed that the same 

 manner of preparing flour is very generally used on the Barbary 

 coast, and that the dish so prepared is there called by the same 

 name. It is therefore probable that the negroes borrowed the 

 practice from the Moors." 



For gratifying a taste for variety, another sort of pudding 

 called nealing was sometimes prepared from the maize meal. 



In preparing their maize for food, he says, that these 

 natives use a large wooden mortar called a paloon, in which 

 they bruise the grain until it parts with the outer covering or 

 husk, which is then separated from the clean corn by exposing 

 it to the wind, nearly in the same manner as wheat is cleared 

 from the chaff in England. The corn thus freed from the 

 husk is returned to the mortar, and beaten into meal, which 

 is dressed variously in different native countries. 



He also states (ibid.) that the anthers of the maize tassel, 

 stewed in milk and water, were eaten in times of great scarcity 

 of food, by the Mandingoes. 



631. An Important Article of Diet of the American People. 

 — We are told that " the first generations of English-Americans 

 subsisted mainly on maize" [Century Magazine, 1). Bacon 

 (1) describes the method of preparation in the early days of its 

 introduction into Europe as follows : " Indian maiz . . . must 

 be thoroughly boyled, and made into a maiz-creame, like a 

 barley-creame," doubtless having imported the recipe from the 

 American continent. 



Maize continues to be an important article of diet of the 

 American people ; in one form or another it is met with in all 

 parts of the country and among all classes of people. 



