MAXIOC. 



247 



it with parsnips and wet potatoes : the Hindus 

 declare it to be heavy as lead, and so 8 cold ' that 

 it always generates rheumatism. The "Wasa- 

 wafaili have some fifty different ways of prepar- 

 ing it. Boiled, and served up with a sauce of 

 ground-nut cream, it is palatable : in every 

 bazar sun-dried lengths, split by the women, 

 and looking like pipe-clay and flour, are to 

 be bought : a paste, kneaded with cold water, 

 is cooked to scones over the fire : others wrap 

 the raw root in a plantain-leaf and bake 

 it, like greeshen, in the hot ashes. The poorer 

 classes pound, boil, stir, and swallow the thick 

 gruel till their stomachs stand out in bold re- 

 lief. Pull of gluten, this food is bv no means 

 nutritious ; and after a short time it produces 

 that inordinate craving for meat, even the meat 

 of white ants, which has a name in most African 

 languages. 



The Bhang (Cannabis Sativa), which grows 

 plentifully, though not wild, in the interior of 

 the Continent, is mostly brought to Zanzibar 

 from India. In Mozambique the Portuguese 

 call it Bange or Canhamo de Portugal (Portugal 

 hemp), and in the Brazil it is also known as 

 Bange, evidently the Hindustani 'Bhang.' The 

 •negroes smoke it for intoxication, but ignore the 



