Identifier: nativesofbritish00wern (find matches)
Title: The natives of British Central Africa
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Werner, Alice, 1859-1935
Subjects: Ethnology
Publisher: London : A. Constable and Company, ltd.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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Of beans there are endless varieties; one kind, oftengrown close to villages, is a small shrub with yellowflowers; these beans are gathered and eaten green. Tobacco is grown both for home consumption andfor sale. A good deal of attention is paid to theplants, the leaf-buds being pinched out to make therest of the leaves grow larger. When ready, theyare gathered, soaked in water till they turn brown,and spread in the sun to dry. The Yaos plait theminto twists ; the Shir6 Anyanja pound them withwater, and make them up into balls ; the Chipetasand Angoni make theirs into pyramids. Tobacco isused for smoking, but more frequently in the formof snuff. To make this, the leaves are dried by thefire in a potsherd, and then ground on stones. Whentobacco is chewed, it is mixed with lime got by burn-ing snail-shells. Smoking is not a continuous pro-cess as with Europeans, but a large pipe is passedround, and each man takes a pull or two at it. Thisis the usual method of refreshment, when halting
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o To face f- 17H ARTS, INDUSTRIES, ETC, 179 for a short time on a journey. Men will also smokethe intoxicating hemp (chamba or dakhd), which theysay is * instead of food and drink to them when theyare tired, though they likewise admit that it catchestheir legs. The plant grows about the villages with-out any special cultivation. Its use seems to be olderthan that of tobacco; it was smoked by the Bushmenbefore the Bantu penetrated into South Africa. The gardens proper may be a short distance fromthe villages, or they may be three or four miles away.The people begin by hoeing the land close to theirdwellings; when the soil is exhausted, they move fartherout, and so on, from year to year. When the gar-dens come to be inconveniently far away, the villageis moved ; and thus the population is continuallyshifting from place to place, and one sometimesfinds sites of old gardens in what one had thoughtwas untouched bush. When a man has selected a site for a new garden,he marks the place, and b

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