98 VI. LUMBERMEN AND RAFTSMEN 
Africa is that none of its food products keep long. 
Bananas and manioc ripen the whole year through, now 
freely, now sparingly, according to the time of year, but 
bananas go bad six days after gathering, and manioc 
bread ten days after it is made. The manioc root by 
itself is unusable, as there are poisonous species which 
contain cyanic acid, to get rid of which the roots are 
soaked for some days in running water. Stanley lost 
three hundred carriers because they too hastily ate 
manioc root which had not been washed long enough. 
When it is taken out of the water it is crushed and 
rubbed, and undergoes fermentation, and this produces 
a kind of tough, dark dough, which is moulded into 
thin sticks and wrapped in leaves for preservation. 
Europeans find this a very poor food. 
Since, then, the regular provision of local foodstuffs 
is so difficult, these native timber workers have to 
reconcile themselves to hving on rice and preserved 
foods from Europe. This means mostly cheap tins of 
sardines, prepared specially for export to the inland 
regions of Africa, and of these the stores always have a 
big supply in stock. Variety is secured by means of 
tinned lobster, tinned asparagus, and Californian fruits. 
The expensive tinned stuff which the well-to-do 
European denies himself as too expensive, the negro, 
when felling timber, eats from necessity ! 
And shooting ? In the real forest shooting is im- 
possible. There is, indeed, wild fife in plenty, but how 
is it to be discovered and pursued in the thick jungle ? 
Good shooting is only to be had where grassland or tree- 
less marshes alternate with the forest, but in such 
places there is usually no timber to be felled. Thus, 
paradox though it seems, it is nowhere easier to starve 
