284 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



they consider cheese a miracle, and use against it their 

 stock denunciation, the danger of bewitching cattle. 

 Thefresh produce, moreover, has few charms as a poculent 

 amongst barbarous and milk-drinking races : the Arabs 

 and the Portuguese in Africa avoid it after the sun is 

 high, believing it to increase bile, and eventually to 

 cause fever : it is certain that, however pleasant the 

 draught may be in the cool of the morning, it is by no 

 means so much relished during the heat of the day. 

 On the other hand, the curded milk is everywhere a 

 favourite on account of its cooling and thirst-quenching 

 properties, and the people accustomed to it from infancy 

 have for it an excessive longing. It is procurable in 

 every village where cows are kept, whereas that newly- 

 drawn is generally half-soured from being at once 

 stored in the earthen pots used for curding it. These 

 East Africans do not, however, make their dahi, like 

 the Somal, in lumps floating upon the tartest possible 

 serum ; nor do they turn it, like the Arabs, with kid's 

 rennet, nor like the Baloch with the solan aceous plant 

 called panir. The best is made, as in India, by allow- 

 ing the milk to stand till it clots in a pot used for the 

 purpose, and frequently smoked for purity. Butter- 

 milk is procurable only in those parts of the country 

 where the people have an abundance of cattle. 



Butter is made by filling a large gourd, which acts 

 as churn, with partially-soured milk, which is shaken 

 to and fro : it is a poor article, thin, colourless, and 

 tainted by being stored for two or three months, with- 

 out preliminary washing, in the bark-boxes called 

 vilindo. In the Eastern regions it is converted into 

 ghee by simply melting over the fire : it is not boiled 

 to expel the remnant of sour milk, impurities are not 

 removed by skimming, and finally it becomes rancid 



