104 
SHEA BUTTEE. 
of leaves and fruit were ob- 
tained, but no tree was seen 
bearing flowers^. 
The Nufi people extend 
over a great territory, and 
may comprise 100,000 peo- 
ple. The nation may be 
said to extend from the Con- 
fluence, on the left bank, 
beyond Rabbah. On the 
right bank there are also Nufi people, but they are 
more assimilated with the Filatahs. The Nufi people 
are, generally, marked in the face thus : — three elliptical 
gashes extending from the temple to the mouth, and 
one from the nose, crossing the cheek ; sometimes there 
* Bassia, Lin., named by Ferdinand Bassi, Curator of the Botanical 
Garden at Bologna. Natural order, Sapotacew, called Parkia, in 
honour of the distinguished African traveller Mungo Park, who 
brought specimens of the tree to England, and described it as resem- 
bling the American oak. The butter, according to M. Chevreul, 
consists of a smaU proportion of aromatic principle ; 2dly, of oleine j 
3dly, of stearine : this last is analogous to the stearine of mutton fat, 
for, in saponification, it gives steaiic acid. This vegetable butter, 
according to the same chemist, is perfectly liquid at 120"^ Fahrenheit ; 
at 100*250°, it begins to get turbid; at 95f°, it exhibits a liquid por- 
tion, ill which floats some brilliant crystals : the liquid part is a com- 
bination of oleine and stearine. A thermometer plunged into melted 
vegetable butter, falls to 80|°; it afterwards ascends to 89|°, when 
the vegetable butter becomes concrete. The vegetable butter is easily 
converted into soap, -when heated with a solution of potass or soda; 
and the soaps thus obtained are analogous to those made with mutton 
fat, with this advantage, that they are indorous. It would therefore 
be a valuable article iu many of our manufactures. 
