12 



1911— January 25th (1) 



,, February ... 



,, March 

 1912 (2) 

 1914— July 

 1915— March 



,, September 

 1916— August 



(1) " Teff was offered for the first time this, year. 



(2) Was realized at one time this year. 



USE OF TEFF-SEED FOR HUMAN FOOD. 



The traveller, James Bruce, F.R.S., who visited Abyssinia in 



1768-73, in search of the source of the Nile, and whose " Travels " 



were published in 1790, gives a long and interesting account of the 



use of Teff for making bread, by the Abyssinians. His appears to. 



, be the first cublished account of this cereal, and as the book is 



.not readily accessible, Bruce's observations on the subject are here 

 quoted in full, from the copy in the library of the Rand Club, 

 Johannesburg : — 



" This grain is commonly sown all over Abyssinia, where it 

 seems to thrive equally on every sort of ground ; from it is made 

 the bread which is commonly used throughout Abyssinia. The 

 Abyssinians, indeed, have plenty of wheat, and some of it of an 

 excellent quality. They likewise make as fine wheat-bread as any 



" in the, world, both for colour and for tas;>e ; but the use of wheat- 

 bread is chiefly confined to people of the first rank. On the other 



.hand, Teff is used by all sorts of people, from the King downwards, 

 and there are kinds of it which are esteemed fully as much as 

 wheat.. The best of these is as white as flour, exceedingly light, 

 and easily digested. There are others of a browner colour, and 

 some nearly black ; this last is the food of soldiers and servants. 

 The cause of this variation of colour is manifold : the Teff that 

 grows on light ground, having a moderate degree of moisture, but 

 never dry, the lighter the earth is in which it grows, the better 

 and whiter the Teff will be ; the husk, too, is thinner. That Teff, 

 too, that ripens before the heavy rains, is usually whiter and finer ; 

 and a great deal depends upon sifting the husk from it, after it is 

 reduced to flour, by bruising or breaking it in a stone mill. This 

 is repeated several times with great care, in the finest kind of 

 bread, which is found in the houses of all people of rank or sub- 

 stance. The manner of making it is by taking a broad earthen jar, 

 and having made a lump of it with water, they put it into an 

 earthen jar at some distance from the fire, where it remains till it 

 begins to ferment, or turn sour ; they then bake it into cakes of a 

 circula.r form, and about two feet in diameter : It is of a spungy, 

 soft quality, and not a disagreeable, sourish taste. Two of these 

 cakes a-day, and a coarse cotton cloth once a-year, are the wages 

 of a common servant. 



"At their banquets of raw meat, the flesh being cut in small 

 bits, is wrapt up in pieces of this bread, with a proportion of 

 fossile salt and cayenne pepper. Before the company sits down 

 to eat, a number of these cakes of different Qualities are placed one 

 upon the other, in the same manner as our plates, and the principal 

 people, sitting first down, eat the white Teff ; the second, or coarser 



