APPENDIX. 77 



as fine wheat-bread as any in the world, both for colour 

 and for tafle ; but the ufe of wheat-bread is chiefly confi- 

 ned to people of the firft rank. On the other hand, TefF 

 is ufed by all forts of people from the king downwards, and 

 there are kinds of it which are efteemed fully as much as 

 wheat. The bell of thefe is as white as flour, exceedingly 

 light, and eaiily digefted. There are others of a browner 

 colour, and fome nearly black ; this laft is the food of fol- 

 diers and fervants. The caufe of this variation of colour 

 is manifold ; the TefT that grows on light ground having 

 a moderate degree of moifture, but never dry ; the lighter 

 the earth is in which it grows, the better and whiter the 

 TefT will be ; the hufk too is thinner. That TefT, too, that 

 ripens before the heavy rains, is ufually whiter and finer, 

 and a great deal depends upon lifting the hufk from it after 

 it is reduced to flour, by bruifing or breaking it in a flone- 

 mill. This is repeated feveral times with great care, in 

 the fineft kind of bread, which is found in the houfes of 

 all people of rank or fubftance. The manner of making it 

 is by taking a broad earthen jar, and having made a lump 

 of it with water, they put it into an earthen jar at fome dif- 

 tance from the fire, where it remains till it begins to fer- 

 ment, or turn four ; they then bake it into cakes of a cir- 

 cular form, and about two feet in diameter : It is of a fpun- 

 gy, foft quality, and not a difagreeable fourifh tafte. Two 

 o? thefe cakes a-day, and a coarfe cotton cloth once a-year,. 

 are the wages of a common fervant. 



At their banquets of raw meat, the flefli being cut in 

 fmall bits, is wrapt up in pieces of this bread, with a pro- 

 portion of follile fait and Cayenne pepper. Before the com- 

 pany fits down to eat, a number of thefe cakes of different 



M 2: qualities. 



x 



