FOOD PREJUDICES. 



29 



out other effects but nausea. The custom, however, 

 is not uncommon upon both coasts of Africa : it takes, 

 in fact, the place of the mastic of Chios, the kat of 

 Yemen, the betel and toasted grains of India and the 

 farther East, and the ashes of the Somali country. The 

 Wanyamwezi, and indeed the East- African tribes gene- 

 rally, have some curious food prejudices. Before their 

 closer intercourse with the Arabs they used to keep 

 poultry, but, like the Gallas and the Somal, who look 

 upon the fowl as a kind of vulture, they would not eat 

 it : even in the present day they avoid eggs. Some 

 will devour animals that have died of disease, and 

 carrion, — the flesh of lions and leopards, elephants and 

 rhinoceroses, asses, wild cats and rats, beetles and white 

 ants ; — others refuse to touch mutton or clean water- 

 fowl, declaring that it is not their custom. The pre- 

 judice has not, however, been reduced to a system, as 

 amongst the tribes of southern Africa. They rarely 

 taste meat except upon the march, where the prospect 

 of gain excites them to an unusual indulgence : when 

 a bullock is killed, they either jerk the meat, or dry it 

 upon a dwarf platform of sticks raised above a slow 

 and smoky fire, after which it will keep for some days. 

 The usual food is the ugali or porridge of boiled flour : 

 they find, however, a variety of edible herbs in the 

 jungle, and during the season they luxuriate upon 

 honey and sour milk. No Mnyamwezi, however, will 

 own to repletion unless he has " sat upon pombe," — 

 in other words, has drunk to intoxication ; and the 

 chiefs pride themselves upon living entirely upon beef 

 and stimulants. 



The Wanyamwezi have won for themselves a repu- 

 tation by their commercial industry. Encouraged by 

 the merchants, they are the only professional porters of 



