For use the loaf is scraped, and a sufficiency is added to the
half-boiled or stewed flesh, the two being then cooked together:
it is equally prized in meat broths, or with fish, dry and fresh;
and it is the favoured kitchen for rice and the insipid banana.
"Odika," the "Ndika" of the Bakele tribes, is universally used,
like our "Worcester," and it may be called the one sauce of
Gorilla-land, the local equivalent for curry, pepper-pot, or
palm-oil chop; it can be eaten thick or thin, according to taste,
but it must always be as hot as possible. The mould sells for
half a dollar at the factories, and many are exported to
adulterate chocolate and cocoa, which it resembles in smell and
oily flavour. I regret to say that travellers have treated this
national relish disrespectfully, as continentals do our "plomb-
boudin:" Mr. W. Winwood Reade has chaffed it, and another Briton
has compared it with "greaves."
At "Cockerapeak," or, to speak less unpoetically, when Alectryon
sings his hymn to the dawn, the working bees of the little hive
must be up and stirring, whilst the master and mistress enjoy the
beauty-sleep.
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