6S 
MILK AND BUTTER. 
and in the season when milk is scarce, they are allowed a 
small portion of grain, about three quarters of a pound, 
without milk ; at that season they eat only at 1 1 o'clock at 
night, when their masters are in bed. Such of the Moors 
as have young slaves ten or twelve years old, send them to 
the enclosure where the calves are, at milking time ; and 
from every cow they let them drink a mouthful of milk ; 
which is all the food they receive, so that they suffer much 
from hunger. 
When supper is over, the milk which is left is put in a 
leather bag, called soucou, to curdle. In the morning, after 
the cows are milked, they breakfast as they supped over- 
night, that is to say upon milk; the difference being that 
they have less of it, because the calves are allowed to suck 
in the morning. 
At noon, a slave churns the milk to make butter ; filling 
the soucou which holds it with wind, and then shaking it 
on her lap for a quarter of an hour. When the butter is 
made, they work it into little balls of the size of a walnut, 
and add three parts water to the milk, which is set by in 
calabashes to be distributed at dinner. The balls are put 
into the portion destined for the women, and they swallow 
them in drinking ; this beverage of milk and water is called 
cheni. 
The Moors are naturally filthy ; and they seem to chuse 
the dirtiest slave on purpose, to make the butter and appor- 
tion the cheni. I have seen the women making the balls 
of butter with their hands wipe their fingers on their 
hair, and then plunge them again into the calabash containing 
the butter and milk. They disgusted me to such a degree 
by their uncleanly ways, that I have often suffered hunger, 
rather than accept a drink which they had prepared so fil- 
thily. 
If the slaves are ill treated by the hassanes, those who 
belong to the marabouts fare still worse. I have mentioned 
