WOKK IN EAST AFRICA. 



289 



and inspissating the juice ; nor do they, like the natives 

 of Usumbara, convert it into an inebrient. Yet sugar 

 attracts them like flies ; they clap their hands with 

 delight at the taste ; they buy it for its weight of ivory; 

 and if a thimbleful of the powder happen to fall upon 

 the ground, they will eat an ounce of earth rather than 

 lose a grain of it. 



After eating, the East African invariably indulges in 

 a long fit of torpidity, from which he awakes to pass 

 the afternoon as he did the forenoon, chatting, playing, 

 smoking, and chewing " sweet-earth. " Towards sunset 

 all issue forth to enjoy the coolness : the men sit outside 

 the Iwanza, whilst the women and the girls, after fetch- 

 ing water for household wants from the well, collecting 

 in a group upon their little stools, indulge in the 

 pleasures of gossipred and the pipe. This hour in the 

 more favoured parts of the country is replete with 

 enjoyment, which even the barbarian feels, though not 

 yet indoctrinated into a3sthetics. As the hours of dark- 

 ness draw nigh, the village doors are carefully closed, 

 and, after milking his cows, each peasant retires to his 

 hut, or passes his time squatting round the fire with his 

 friends in the Iwanza. He has not yet learned the art 

 of making a wick, and of filling a bit of pottery with 

 oil. When a light is wanted, he ignites a stick of the 

 oleaginous mtata, or msasa-tree — a yellow, hard, close- 

 grained, and elastic wood, with few knots, much used 

 in making spears, bows, and walking staves — which 

 burns for a quarter of an hour with a brilliant flame. 

 He repairs to his hard couch before midnight, and snores 

 with a single sleep till dawn. For thorough enjoyment, 

 night must be spent in insensibility, as day is in 

 inebriety ; and, though an early riser, he avoids the 



VOL. II. u 



