Two Men Eating
Note the small earthen pot with the ndiwo
In the spring and early summer, when the old maize is finished and the new is not yet ripe, pumpkins, gourds, and cucumbers of various kinds are a great stand-by, and are eaten boiled. Sweet potatoes are most frequently roasted in the ashes, and manioc-root is eaten either boiled or raw.
In the planting and weeding seasons, people set out for the gardens before daylight, and return before noon, resting during the hottest hours of the day. There are only two formal meals in the day—one about noon or somewhat earlier, the other about sunset. Mothers put away some of the cold porridge overnight, to give the children in the morning, and boys are always roasting sweet potatoes in the ashes at odd times. Any one who feels hungry between meals can usually find something to nibble at; perhaps a roasted maize-cob, or a piece of raw chinangwa (manioc-root). Men on a journey often make ‘pop-corn’ over an improvised fire, roasting the grains (nowadays) on a shovel usually made by fixing the lid of a tin box into a cleft stick. Beer (moa) is made of maize or millet—more frequently of the latter. The process is as follows:—
First a gruel is made by stirring flour with cold water and then pouring boiling water into it. This is allowed to stand till evening and then malt is added. This has been previously prepared by leaving some grain in water till it sprouts, letting it dry in the sun and then pounding it. The mixture is left to stand overnight and then is a sweet, non-intoxicating beverage called nyombe or mtibi. This is often drunk without further preparation; but if it is desired to make real beer, it is kept another day and then boiled for two hours, then poured off and left standing for two or three days more. It is now called mlusu, is highly intoxicating, and is not drunk unless in very small quantities. More malt is added, and on the next day more gruel is made, as at the beginning—perhaps twenty, thirty or more pots—according to the number of guests expected, and the mlusu stirred into it, till all the pots are of the same strength. The beer is ready for use on the following day, after being strained. There are two kinds of strainers; one shaped like a bag, is made of palm-fibre; the other a flat basket of split bamboo. These large brewings are undertaken for funeral-feasts, hoeing-matches, or ‘bees,’ and on various other occasions; beer is also made for dances, or to celebrate the return of travellers, and sometimes, on the conclusion of a lawsuit, the loser pays the other party in beer. A Yao folk-tale relates how, after hearing both sides in a certain case, the judges decided, ‘You must just pay each other’—and the resulting conviviality must have lasted for at least a week. Moa does not, as a rule, keep more than three or four days; but the one family would begin their brewing three days after the other. On the last day of a ‘beer-drinking,’ porridge and perhaps fowls are cooked; but such solid food is not expected on the other days.
Gang of Angoni at Mandala
Note the sleeping-mats rolled up with the other luggage, and the man on the right roasting maize over the fire
