24G 



MANIOC. 



long, is crowned with broad digitated leaves; 

 the conical root, however, has a distinct longi- 

 tudinal fibre the size of small whipcord, which 

 is not found in the ' black, or poisonous, 

 Manioc ' ( Jatropha Manihot, or Manihot uti- 

 lissinia). The people have not attempted to 

 masticate it into a means of intoxication, the 

 Caysimia of the Brazilian Tupy. 1 The Muhogo 

 growls everywhere in Zanzibar Island : it is 

 planted in cuttings during the rains, and it 

 ripens six or eight months afterwards. In the 

 Consular reports for 1860 we are told that 6 the 

 Manioc or Cassava, which forms the chief food 

 of the slaves and poorer classes, yields four crops 

 a year.' This is not probable : the longer all 

 Jatropha is kept in the ground, within certain 

 limits, the larger and better is the root. Manioc 

 is carried as an acceptable present by travellers 

 going into the interior. 



At Zanzibar the traveller should train his 

 stomach to this food, and take care not to call it 

 £ Manioc.' When raw it resembles a poor chest- 

 nut, but in this state none save a servile stomach 

 can eat it without injury. Europeans compare 



1 I have read in some book that the ' Pywaree ' of Guiana 

 is made from the masticated and fermented juice of the cassava- 

 ' flower ' — probably for — £ flour.' 



