AGRICULTURE, FARM, AND FOREST PRODUCTS 121 
Many leaves are also eaten as vegetables. One of the most important is 
the vine Ipomoea, the thick fleshy leaves of which are used as a green particularly 
by the Vais. 
The pepper, Piper guineensis, is used by the natives especially to flavor rice. 
It grows chiefly on the trunks of the higher trees. Several species of Capsicum 
are also frequently employed in cooking. 
Among the vegetables consumed are two species of Solanum, one of which 
is eaten frequently as greens; the other producing a fruit like an immature egg- 
plant. 
Nearer the coast several species of Colocasia and the Ipomoea batatas (sweet 
potato), a species of yam, as well as Hibiscus esculentus and a small tomato, 
Lycopersicum esculentum, are all cultivated in the gardens and eaten. The kola 
nut, Cola acwminata, also grows in some localities in a state of semi-cultivation, 
and is widely partaken of for its mildly stimulating and tonic effects. 
Tetracera potatoria, known as the water tree, is found in most parts of the 
country. It is a low tree or shrub sometimes climbing upon other trees. When 
the stems are cut across, an abundant watery sap gushes forth, which is clear 
and tasteless, and which is often drunk by the natives when water is not avail- 
able. 
Animal food is scarce in most parts of Liberia. Chickens and ducks are 
found, but only in small numbers around many of the villages, and in the larger 
towns there are often a few goats, which are eaten for food. The milk of the 
goat is apparently not partaken of; sheep are very rare, and the scarcity of 
cattle has already been referred to. Apparently for economic reasons the natives 
seldom kill the oxen for meat, and only when the animal dies from injury or 
disease is the flesh consumed. On rare occasions in some of the towns bush- 
cow meat (forest buffalo, Bubalus) is seen in the market for sale, often with 
the skin and hair left on, in which state the meat is often eaten. The meat of 
duikers and occasionally of other antelopes, and of monkeys is even less often 
obtainable and seldom eaten by the natives. Among some of the tribes the 
searcity of animal food no doubt is sometimes a great temptation to cannibalism. 
Elephants—and indeed game animals generally—are now very scarce and are 
found only in very few regions, and there is comparatively little hunting. Fish 
is a favorite article of diet when it can be obtained from the rivers by fish traps 
or nets. Smoked and salt fish, however, often makes its way in from the coast 
in trading. 
Among a number of the interior tribes totemistic customs prevail. Among 
the totems which members of the different tribes may not eat are said to be 
the chimpanzee (called baboon), the black Cephalophus antelope, monkeys and 
catfish, and also the python. The souls of the departed are in some instances 
believed to live on in these animals. 
The chief meal of most of the inland people is eaten between five and six 
o'clock in the afternoon. Among some of the tribes another heavy meal is 
partaken of at noon, but little is eaten in the early morning. The woman takes 
her meal with the younger children after the men, on whom she usually waits. 
