86 = A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 
eight days, either weekly or fortnightly, for the native 
week is of four days only. One of the days of the week 
often bears a distinctive name of “selling,” or “ market ” 
day. The natives will often come a hundred miles to 
attend one of these big markets, and there are generally 
over a thousand present. ‘They bring sheep, goats, pigs, 
Muscovy ducks, and fowls for sale or barter, the fowls 
most carefully packed in long wicker cages, fastened 
between two stout poles converging at each end. ‘Eggs are 
usually carried in large finely-plaited baskets; indeed 
some of their basket-work is so tightly made that it will 
hold water. At the markets between Isangila and 
Manyanga five hundred eggs may be bought at a time. 
The natives also sell fresh vegetables, pumpkins, sweet 
potatoes, and even a wild cabbage, bananas, plantains, 
pine-apples, ground-nuts, sugar-cane, maize, kola-nut 
tobacco, and “ Kikwanga.” Kikwanga needs a word of 
special mention, it is such an important article of con- 
sumption in the Congo dietary. The root of the manioc,* 
or cassada, a very ancient introduction from Brazil, is 
taken and pounded into a fine white pulp. This is left to 
soak for about twenty-four hours in running water (possibly 
to rid the substance of a certain acid poison attributed to 
the root), and is then allowed to ferment. When worked 
up into a consistence of stiff dough it is divided into 
portions, and each portion is wrapped up in a large green 
leaf until wanted for cooking. Kikwanga tastes and looks 
like sour dough, but it is highly nutritious. The best 
way of eating it is to cut it into very thin slices, and to 
fry these in butter, or if butter be not procurable, in 
ground-nut oil, easily extracted from Arachis hypogea. - 
Perhaps a simple receipt for doing so might interest 
intending African travellers who are reading these pages. 
Take a bushel of ripe ground-nuts that have previously 
been dried in the sun, pound them to a pulp, and put 
them in a cauldron of boiling water. The oil will rise to 
the surface, and can easily be skimmed off and put apart 
* Manihot utilissina. 
