160 Village Life in Pongo-land . 
in appearance resembles guava cheese, will keep 
through the year. 
For use the loaf is scraped, and a sufficiency 
is added to the half-boiled or stewed flesh, the 
two being then cooked together : it is equally 
prized in meat broths, or with fish, dry and 
fresh ; and it is the favoured kitchen for rice and 
the insipid banana. “ Odika,” the “Ndika” of 
the Bakele tribes, is universally used, like our 
“ Worcester,” and it may be called the one sauce 
of Gorilla-land, the local equivalent for curry, 
pepper-pot, or palm-oil chop; it can be eaten thick 
or thin, according to taste, but it must always be 
as hot as possible. The mould sells for half a 
dollar at the factories, and many are exported 
to adulterate chocolate and cocoa, which it re¬ 
sembles in smell and oily flavour. I regret to say 
that travellers have treated this national relish dis¬ 
respectfully, as continentals do our “ plomb-bou- 
din : ” Mr. W. Winwood Reade has chaffed it, and 
another Briton has compared it with “ greaves.” 
At “ Cockerapeak,”or, to speak less unpoetically, 
when Alectryon sings his hymn to the dawn, the 
working bees of the little hive must be up and 
stirring, whilst the master and mistress enjoy the 
beauty-sleep. “ Early to bed, and early to rise,” 
is held only fit to make a man surly, and give him 
red eyes, by all wild peoples, who have little work, 
and who justly hold labour an evil less only than 
