OIL AND BEER IN EAST AFEICA. 



285 



and bitter by storing in pots and gourds which have 

 been used for the purpose during half a generation. 

 The Arabs attempt to do away with the nauseous taste 

 by throwing into it when boiling a little water, with a 

 handful of flour or of unpowdered rice. Westward of 

 Unyamwezi butter is burned instead of oil in lamps. 



The common oil in East Africa is that of the karanga, 

 bhuiphali, or ground-nut (Arachis hypogcea) : when ghee 

 is not procurable, the Arabs eat it, like cocoa-nut oil, 

 with beans, manioc, sweet-potato and other vegetables. 

 A superior kind of cooking is the "uto" extracted 

 from the ufuta, simsim or sesamum, which grows 

 everywhere upon the coast, and extends far into the 

 interior. The process of pressing is managed by 

 pounding the grain dry in a huge mortar ; when the 

 oil begins to appear, a little hot water is poured in, and 

 the mass is forcibly squeezed with huge pestles ; all 

 that floats is then ladled out into pots and gourds. 

 The viscid chikichi (palm-oil) is found only in the 

 vicinity of the Tanganyika Lake, although the tree 

 grows in Zanzibar and its adjacent islets. Oil is ex- 

 tracted from the two varieties of the castor-plant; and, 

 in spite of its unsavoury smell, it is extensively used 

 as an unguent by the people. At Unyanyembe and 

 other places where the cucumber grows almost wild, the 

 Arabs derive from its seed an admirable salad-oil, which 

 in flavour equals, and perhaps surpasses, the finest 

 produce of the olive. The latter tree is unknown in 

 East Africa to the Arabs, who speak of it with a re- 

 ligious respect, on account of the mention made of it 

 in the Koran. 



In East Africa every man is his own maltster ; and 

 the u Iwanza," or public-house of the village, is the 

 common brewery. In some tribes, however, fermentation 



