NIAM-NIAM WARRIORS.
In describing this people, it is hard to determine how far they ought to be designated as a nation of hunters, or one of agriculturists, the two occupations apparently being equally distributed between the two sexes. The men most studiously devote themselves to their hunting, and leave the culture of the soil to be carried on exclusively by the women. Occasionally, indeed, the men may bring home a supply of fruits, tubers and funguses from their excursions through the forests, but practically they do nothing for the support of their families beyond providing them with game. The agriculture of the Niam-niam, in contrast with that of the Bongo, involves but a small outlay of labour. The more limited area of the arable land, the larger number of inhabitants that are settled on every square mile, the greater productiveness of the soil, of which in some districts the exuberance is unsurpassed—all combine to make the cultivation of the country supremely easy. The entire land is pre-eminently rich in many spontaneous products, animal and vegetable alike, that conduce to the direct maintenance of human life.
The Eleusine coracana (the “raggi” of the East Indies), a cereal which I had found only scantily propagated among the people that I have hitherto described, is here the staple of cultivation; sorghum in most districts is quite unknown, and maize is only grown in inconsiderable quantities.
ELEUSINE BEER.
Here, as in Abyssinia (where its product is called tocusso), eleusine affords a material for a very palatable beer.[4] In the Mohammedan Soudan the inhabitants, from cold fermented sorghum-dough, extract the well-known merissa; and by first warming the dough, and exercising more care and patience in the process, is made the bilbil of the Takareer; neither of these beverages, however, to our palate would be much superior to sour pap: even the booza of Egypt, made though it is from wheat, is hardly in any respect superior in quality. But the drink which by the Niam-niam is prepared from their eleusine is really capable, from the skill with which it is manipulated, of laying a fair claim to be known as beer. It is quite bright; it is of a reddish-pale brown colour, and it is regularly brewed from the malted grain, without the addition of any extraneous ingredient; it has a pleasant, bitter flavour, derived from the dark husks, which, if they were mixed in their natural condition with the dough, would impart a twang that would be exceedingly unpalatable. How large is the proportion of beer consumed by the Niam-niam may be estimated by simply observing the ordinary way in which they store their corn. As a regular rule, there are three granaries allotted to each dwelling, of which two are made to suffice for the supply which is to contribute the meal necessary for the household; the other is entirely devoted to the grain that has been malted.
Manioc, sweet potatoes, yams, and colocasiæ are cultivated with little trouble, and rarely fail to yield excellent crops. Plantains are only occasionally seen in the east, and from the districts in which I travelled, I should judge that they are not a main support of life at any latitude higher than 4° N. Sugar-canes and oil-palms entirely failed in this part of the land, but I was informed that they were as plentiful in Keefa’s territory as they are among the Monbuttoo.
