it is the same fish which is known in New York by the name
o f “ sheep’s-head.” The common mode of cooking the fish
is by boiling; but they never take out the entrails.
The principal fruits at Tombuctoo are cocoa-nuts, dates,
figs, pine-apples, and a sweet fruit about as large as an
apple, with a stone about the size of a plum stone. This
latter was greatly esteemed; and being scarce, was preserved
with care for the Royal Family. The leaves of this fruit
resembled those of a peach. (15)
The vegetables are carrots, turnips, sweet potatoes, negro
beans, and cabbages; but the latter are eaten very small,
and never grow to a solid head.
The grain is principally rice and guinea-corn. The cultivation
of the soil at Tombuctoo requires very little labour,
and is chiefly performed with a kind of hoe which the
natives procure from the Moors, and which appears to be
their only implement of husbandry. Adams never observed
any cattle used in agriculture.
The guinea-corn grows five or six feet high, with a bushy
head as large as a pint bottle, the grain being about the
size of a mustard seed, of which each head contains about
a double handful. This they beat upon a stone until they
extract all the seed, and then they put it between two flat
stones and grind it. These operations are performed by
one person. The meal, when ground, is sifted through a
small sieve made of grass. The coarse stuff is boiled for
some time, after which the flour is mixed with it, and when
well boiled together it makes a thick mess like burgoo. This
is put into a wooden dish, and a hole being made in the
middle of the mess, some goats’ milk is poured into it. The
natives then sit on the ground, men, women and children,
indiscriminately round the mess thus prepared, and eat it
with their fingers. Even the King and Queen do the
same, having neither spoons, knives, nor forks. In the preparation
of this food for the King and Queen, they sometimes
use butter, which is produced from goats’ milk;
and though soft and mixed with hair, it appeared to be
considered a great dainty. Some of the bowls out of
which the natives eat are made of cocoa-nut shells; but
most of them are of the trunk of the fig-tree hollowed out
with chisels.
The animals are elephants, cows, goats, (no horses), (is)
asses, camels, dromedaries, dogs, rabbits, antelopes, and an
animal called heirie, of the shape of a camel, but much
smaller. These latter are only used by theNegroes for riding,
as they are stubborn, and unfit to carry other burdens:
they are excessively fleet, and will travel for days together
at the rate of fifty miles a day. The Moors were very