76 A DESCRIPTION OF THE WANYORO.

privileged in this respect, for they always eat with their husbands. ‘The boys eat with the women. Meat is preferred cooked with vegetables, especially unripe bananas. The pots used for cooking are round, and exactly similar to the watervessels, but smaller. ‘The food, when ready, is poured into boat-shaped dishes standing on feet, which are placed on a mat ; the company gather round them, and eat with their hands; spoons, however, cut out of gourd-shells, are in use. There are altogether three meals in the day. After eating, in which the Wanyoro are moderate, a strip of wet banana bark is used to wipe the hands. ‘The fireplace used for cooking is often situated in a small compartment walled off by reeds Gn Uganda they have separate huts for cooking, called fumbiro). It consists of five stones so placed that the longest and broadest is in the middle, and the others stand two in a line to the right and left of it (:oO%), so that several vessels can be put on the fire at once. : For storing corn (eleusine) clean holes in the ground (kubutta) are used. Fish is split open, cleaned, and dried over a smoky fire; this is the method of curing employed on both lakes.

The drinks used in Uny6oro are séndi, mwénge, and mérvua. Sdndi is the juice of ripe bananas, freshly pressed out, and little, if at all, fermented. It is a pleasant drink, resembling wine, and slightly sparkling, and is more especially affected by the ladies; when it comes into the market at all it is rather dear. Mwénge is prepared by mashing bananas ripened artificially over a fire or underground, adding water and roasted durrah, and allowing the liquor to stand until it has become highly fermented. This beverage is sour, and very intoxicating. Its manufacture is described by Speke and Grant, who also give illustrations of the preparation of the durrah, or eleusine beer (mérvua), used all over Africa. Corn is not malted here. The use of mwénge is so universal in Unyoro, and particularly in Uganda, that I believe many people never drink water. The Wanyodro take enormous quantities of it, and even little children drink it with the greatest delight. Yet I have never seen drunken men here as in Hurope. Mwénge is either drunk from gourd-bowls or sucked up from