Page:Swahili tales.djvu/511

Rh It is a rule to spend seven days after marriage in the bride's house without going out, during which time the bride's father sends provisions daily, and the bridegroom is scented, and his hands and feet stained with henna, as is usually done by women. This period of seven days is called fungate, a word which does not occur otherwise in Swahili, but which in several of the negro languages means seven. See p. 49.

2. [P. 17, l. 29. Hard dry scorched rice.] It is usual in cooking rice to pour away the water when the rice is nearly done, and then reversing the lid of the pot, to fill it with live embers, and set the pot so covered on one side until the kitoweo (see note 5) is cooked. This hot cover makes a dry skin on the top of the rice, which frequently gets brown and scorched: it was this dry skin, called in Zanzibar uhoko, that the stepmother chose for her husband's child.

3. [P. 19, l. 26. Let us eat together.] It is not usual among rich people for women and men to eat together, but it is frequently done among the poor.

4. [P. 19. Chicha.] In all cooking in Zanzibar, a cocoa-nut is the first thing required. It is cracked across by a skilful tap or two, the juice is allowed to run away, and the nut scraped to a coarse meal by the help of an instrument called an mbuzi (goat). The mbuzi is a piece of plank about two and a half feet long, armed at the end with a flat iron blade about one inch and a half in width, serrated at the edges. A piece of plank near the blade at right angles to the main piece serves to tilt it up at a sufficient angle; another near the opposite end, and on the upper side, serves as a sort of back for the cook, who sits astride the mbuzi, and works the half cocoa-nut upon the iron blade till the inside is scraped out. Water is poured over the scrapings, and they are squeezed with the hand until the water becomes a thick milky fluid, which is called tui, and is the main part of the mchuzi and of all curries. The chicha which remains is very woody, and is generally thrown away, unless used as here, as a sort of soap to soften and clean the hands.

5. [P. 19, l. 34. Mchuzi, kitoweo.] Kitoweo is a general name for whatever is eaten with the rice or grain: it may be meat, or fish, or merely salt. The most common kitoweo with rich people is a curried fowl, among poorer people, a fresh fish or a little bit of some salt fish. Great quantities of salt shark are brought every year to Zanzibar by the Arabs, and are eaten by the slaves and the poorest classes of free men. The mchuzi is the gravy or curry, or whatever liquid stuff is served with the kitoweo. It is most commonly a kind of