CHAP. VIII.] 
BUTTER NUTS AND FRUITS. 
311 
So prolific is this plant, that one vine will produce 
about 150 yams : they are covered with a fine skin of 
a greenish brown, and are in flavour nearly equal to a 
potato, but rather waxy. 
There are many good wild fruits, including one very 
similar to a walnut in its green shell; the flesh of this 
has a remarkably fine flavour, and the nut within 
exactly resembles a horse-chestnut in size and fine 
mahogany colour. This nut is roasted, and, when 
ground and boiled, a species of fat or butter is skimmed 
from the surface of the water : this is much prized by 
the natives, and is used for rubbing their bodies, being 
considered as the best of all fats for the skin; it is 
also eaten. 
Among the best of the wild fruits is one resembling 
raisins; this grows in clusters upon a large tree. Also 
a bright yellow fruit, as large as a Muscat grape, and 
several varieties of plums. None of these are pro¬ 
duced in Latooka. Ground-nuts are also in abundance 
in the forests; these are not like the well-known 
African ground-nut of the west coast, but are con¬ 
tained in an excessively hard shell. A fine quality of 
flax grows wild, but the twine generally used by the 
natives is made from the fibre of a species of aloe. 
Tobacco grows to an extraordinary size, and is pre¬ 
pared similarly to that of the Ellyria tribe. When 
