OILS AND PATS, ETC. 345 



extracted, forms an article of considerable traffic in the regions about 

 the Lake. This is the celebrated extract, whose various officinal uses in 

 Europe have already begun to work a social reformation in Western 

 Africa. The people of Ujiji separate by pounding the oily sarcocarpium 

 from the one seed of the drupe, boil it for some hours, allow the floating 

 substance to coagulate, and collect it in large earthen pots. 



The price is usually about one doti of white cotton for thirty-five 

 pounds, and the people generally demand salt in exchange for it from 

 caravans. This is the " oil of a red colour," which, according to Mr- 

 Cooley, is brought by the Wanyamwezi " from the opposite or south- 

 western side of the Lake." Despite its sickly flavour, it is universally 

 used in cooking, and it forms the only unguent and lamp oil in the 

 country. This fine Guinea palm is also tapped, as the date is in Western 

 India, for toddy, and the cheapness of this timbo — the sura of West 

 Africa— accounts for the prevalence of intoxication, and the consequent 

 demoralisation of the Lakist tribes.* 



Palm oil factories on the West Coast are very numerous. The process 

 of extracting the oil is simple. The nuts are gathered by men ; from 

 one to four or five women separate them from the integuments ; they 

 are then passed on to other women, who boil them in large earthen pots. 

 Another set crush their fibre in mortars. This done, they are placed in 

 large clay vats, filled with water, and two or three women tread out the 

 semi-liquid oil, which comes to the surface as disengaged from the fibre, 

 when it is collected and again boiled, to get rid of the water which 

 mechanically adheres to it. The inner. surface of these clay vats, having 

 at first absorbed a small quantity of oil, is not afterwards affected either 

 by the water or oil. 



No part of the palm-nut is wasted. The hard shell or pericarp is 

 burnt for charcoal, and used by the native blacksmiths. The oil being 

 extracted, the fibre which still retains oil, is dried or used for kindling. 

 The kernel is used for making another oil called adi locally, which is 

 excellent for burning in lamps and making native soap. In British 

 commerce it is called palm kernel oil. 



Mr. Cole, in his " Life on 'the Niger," says : The palm nuts grow 

 in clusters or bunches, containing as many as 4,000, and when gathered 

 are thrown indiscriminately into a trench or pit. They are there covered 

 over with leaves, and so left until they become somewhat decayed. The 

 manufacturer then jumps upon the nuts, and by so doing presses out the 

 oil ; the refuse is then parted, and the oil placed in pots containing 

 from three to twenty gallons. 



The kernels of the nuts also contain oil of the most transparent 

 nature, but so tedious is the popular mode of extraction, that it is but 

 seldom obtainable, otherwise than boiled, and then its colour is very 



* Burton's Lake Kegions of Central Africa. 



