IN WESTERN AFRICA 
17 
CHAPTER T. 
FOOD. 
The principal article of food used by tbe Afri- 
cans is rice ; and it does not matter what else they 
have eaten, or how much, they never think they 
have a meal until they have swallowed at least a 
'pint .of rice, which, when boiled, makes two pints ! 
They use, however, quite a variety of animal food, 
fruits, and other vegetables besides, which they eat 
with their rice, or between meals. 
Fowls of every kind common to the country, — 
they have chickens in abundance, but have nothing 
with which to kill wild fowls — fish, which are found 
quite plenty in most of the rivers, rats, 
monkeys, frogs, alligators, ants, bugs, with what- 
ever else the country affords, whether of the 
creeping, running, swimming, or flying kind, are 
all freely eaten. 
The bug-a-bug, a species of the ant, is regarded 
as a great delicacy by many. Animals found 
dead, if not in a putrid state, are also eaten. 
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