Chap. XXIV. HOSPITALITY OF THE PEOPLE. 489 



village we met with some people who remembered our 

 passing up to the Lake in the boat ; they were as kind as 

 they could be. The only food they possessed was tama- 

 rinds, prepared with ashes, and a little cowitch meal. The 

 cowitch, as mentioned before, has a velvety brown cover- 

 ing of minute prickles, which, if touched, enter the pores of 

 the skin and cause a painful tingling. The women in 

 times of scarcity collect the pods, kindle a fire of grass 

 over them to destroy the prickles, then steep the beans 

 till they begin to sprout, wash them in pure water, and 

 either boil them or pound them into meal, which resembles 

 our bean-meal. This plant climbs up the long grass, and 

 abounds in all reedy parts, and, though a plague to the 

 traveller who touches its pods, it performs good service in 

 times of famine by saving many a life from starvation. Its 

 name here is Kitedzi. 



Having travelled at least twenty miles in search of our 

 party that day, our rest on a mat in the best hut of the 

 village was very sweet. We had dined the evening before 

 on a pigeon each, and had eaten only a handful of kitedzi 

 porridge this afternoon. The good wife of the village took 

 a little corn which she had kept for seed, ground it after 

 dark, and made it into porridge, this, and a cup of wild 

 vegetables of a sweetish taste for a relish, a little boy brought 

 in and put clown, with several vigorous claps of his hands, 

 in the manner which is esteemed polite, and which is strictly 

 enjoined on all children. The repast was so scanty that even 

 the smaller of the two starvelings, who was awake, thought 

 that it was all for him, and set to work at once, while his 

 fellow-sufferer, overcome with sleep, had just commenced a 

 pleasant dream of being at a grand feast. Awaking just in 

 time to save a mere fragment of the tiny meal, he was amused 

 to hear the excuses offered by the ruthless devourer, which, 



