58 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



will not be at the pains to cultivate them. Sugar-cane, 

 tobacco, and cotton are always purchasable in the bazar. 

 The fruits are the plantain and the Guinea-palm. The 

 mdizi or plantain-tree is apparently an aborigen of these 

 latitudes : in certain parts, as in Usumbara, Karagwah, 

 and Uganda, it is the staff of life: in the hilly countries 

 there are, it is said, about a dozen varieties, and a 

 single bunch forms a load for a man. It is found in 

 the island and on the coast of Zanzibar, at K'hutu in 

 the head of the alluvial valley, and, though rarely, in the 

 mountains of Usagara. The best fruit is that grown 

 by the Arabs at Unyanyembe : it is still a poor spe- 

 cimen, coarse and insipid, stringy and full of seeds, and 

 strangers rarely indulge in it, fearing flatulence. Upon 

 the Tanganyika Lake there is a variety called mikono 

 t'hembu, or elephant's-hands, which is considerably 

 larger than the Indian " horse-plantain.' 7 The skin is 

 of a brickdust red, in places inclining to rusty-brown ; 

 the pulp is a dull yellow, with black seeds, and the 

 flavour is harsh, strong, and drug-like. The Elseis 

 Guiniensis, locally called mchikichi, which is known by 

 the Arabs to grow in the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, 

 and more rarely in the mountains of Usagara, springs 

 apparently uncultivated in large dark groves on the 

 shores of the Tanganyika, where it hugs the margin, 

 rarely growing at any distance inland. The bright- 

 yellow drupe, with shiny purple-black point, though 

 nauseous to the taste, is eaten by the people. The 

 mawezi or palm-oil, of the consistency of honey, rudely 

 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 W. 

 Africa. The people of Ujiji separate, by pounding, 



