Chap. IV. PALM- WINE — SALT. 101 



to sprout; when dug up and broken, the inside resembles 

 coarse potatoes, and is prized in times of scarcity as nutritious 

 food. During several months of the year, palm-wine, or sura, 

 is obtained in large quantities; when fresh, it is a pleasant 

 drink, somewhat like champagne, and not at all intoxi- 

 cating ; though, after standing a few hours, it becomes highly 

 so. Sticks, a foot long, are driven into notches in the hard 

 outside of the tree, — the inside being soft or hollow, — to serve 

 as a ladder ; the top of the fruit-shoot is cut off, and the sap, 

 pouring out at the fresh wound, is caught in an earthen pot, 

 which is hung at the point, A thin slice is taken off the end, 

 to open the pores, and make the juice flow every time the 

 owner ascends to empty the pot. Temporary huts are erected 

 in the forest, and men and boys remain by their respective 

 trees day and night ; the nuts, fish, and wine, being their sole 

 food. The Portuguese use the palm-wine as yeast, and it 

 makes bread so light, that it melts in the mouth like froth. 



Beyond the marsh the country is higher, and has a much 

 larger population. We passed a long line of temporary huts, 

 on a plain on the right bank, with crowds of men and women 

 hard at work making salt. They obtain it by mixing the 

 earth, which is here highly saline, with water, in a pot with a 

 small hole in it, and then evaporating the liquid, which runs 

 through, in the sun. From the number of women we saw 

 carrying it off in bags, we concluded that vast quantities 

 must be made at these works. It is worth observing that 

 on soils like this, containing salt, the cotton is of larger 

 and finer staple than elsewhere. We saw large tracts of 

 this rich brackish soil both in the Shire and Zambesi 

 valleys, and hence, probably, sea-island cotton would do well ; 

 a single plant of it, reared by Major Sicard, flourished and 

 produced the long staple and peculiar tinge of this celebrated 



