672 BANTU NEGEOES 



limp in the boiling, they fuse into a solid mass. The pot is supported 

 over the fire by three stones of sufficient size, placed in position to serve 

 as a tripod. Instead of stones for this purpose one occasionally sees three 

 old pots, inverted, placed round the lire, and the cooking-pot set on top 

 of them. When the mass is cooked, the pot is taken off the fire, some 

 fresh banana leaves are put on the ground, and the contents is turned out 

 on to the leaves by inverting the cooking-pot. The cooked bananas have a 

 mashed appearance, but you can still detect the shape of the original 

 fruit in the heap. 



If they can afford it, they have a soup, curry, or gravy to eat with the 

 bananas. Some meat is boiled down, or some fish is cooked in a small 

 earthenware fpot, not much bigger than an ordinary sugar-bowl. When 

 the family has gathered together for the meal, each member of it washes 

 his or her hands by pouring water out of a jar on the fingers, one person 

 pouring the water whilst another twirls and rubs his fingers. Then the 

 person who poured-the water hands the jar to the other, so that he in turn 

 may rab and wash his hands. There is no towel for drying ; it is 

 sufficient to give the hands a few violent shakes. They then sit round 

 the mass of banana pulp, men, women, and children altogether. The 

 soup or gravy is sub-divided between one or two other small earthenware 

 bowls, so that a 'person has not to lean across the food to reach it. The 

 heap of food is then parcelled out into a number of little mounds, and 

 each person has one in front of him. He takes up a piece of the mashed 

 plantain, forms uit more or less into a ball in his hand, then dips it into 

 the gravy. If he considers that there is little chance of the gravy 

 dripping from the ball while it is on its way to his mouth, he raises the 

 ball quietly " and disposes of it. If he suspects that there is to be a drip, 

 he casts a hurried glance at the ball of food as it is raised out of the 

 gravy, and regulates the pace to the mouth so that it arrives just before 

 any drop has fallen. If a drop has fallen on the ground, he disposes of 

 the ball first, and then casts a rueful glance at the spot where it fell. 

 Every drop of the soup is precious, and very little of it is wasted. The 

 youngsters of the family, having had less experience and less tact in 

 regulating the quantity of soup each time, and the rate at which the 

 piece of food | should be conveyed to the mouth, frequently waste some; 

 but this is soon noticed, and the elder members of the family charge the 

 younger ones with the waste, especially if there are several dipping in the- 

 same bowl. The youngster admits at once the heinousness of the offence,, 

 and in order to guard against a repetition of it he first of all dips the 

 ball in the ^bowl, then touches it on his mound of banana pulp in 

 order to catch any loose drops of gravy, and then con\-eys it to his mouth. 

 He takes care next. time to pick up the part of the mound on which he 



