The plough has not yet reached Pongo-land; the only tools
are the erem (little axe for felling), the matchet (a rude
cutlass for clearing), the hoe, and a succedaneum for the dibble.
After the bush has been burned as manure, and the seed has been
sown, no one will take the trouble of weeding, and half the
surface is wild growth.
Maize (Zea mays) has become common, and the people enjoy "butas,"
or roasted ears. Barbot says that the soil is unfit for corn and
Indian wheat; it is so for the former, certainly not for the
latter. Rice has extended little beyond the model farms on the
north bank of the river; as everywhere upon the West African
Coast, it is coarser, more nutritious, and fuller flavoured than
the Indian. The cereals, however, are supplanted by plantains and
manioc (cassava). The plantains are cooked in various ways, roast
and boiled, mashed and broiled, in paste and in balls; when
unripe they are held medicinal against dysentery. The manioc is
of the white variety (Fatropha Aypim seu utilissima), and, as at
Lagos, the root may be called the country bread: I never saw the
poisonous or black manioc (Fatropha manihot), either in East or
in West Africa, and I heard of it only once in Unyamwezi, Central
Africa.
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