About Eight O'clock, We Passed A Large Town Called
Kabba, Situated In The Midst Of A Beautiful And Highly Cultivated
Country; Bearing A Greater Resemblance To The Centre Of England, Than To
What I Should Have Supposed Had Been The Middle Of Africa.
The people
were everywhere employed in collecting the fruit of the Shea trees, from
which they prepare the vegetable butter, mentioned in former parts of
this work.
These trees grow in great abundance all over this part of
Bambarra. They are not planted by the natives, but are found growing
naturally in the woods; and in clearing wood land for cultivation, every
tree is cut down but the Shea. The tree itself very much resembles the
American oak; and the fruit, from the kernel of which, being first dried
in the sun, the butter is prepared by boiling the kernel in water, has
somewhat the appearance of a Spanish olive. The kernel is enveloped in a
sweet pulp under a thin green rind; and the butter produced from it,
besides the advantage of its keeping the whole year without salt, is
whiter, firmer, and, to my palate, of a richer flavour than the best
butter I ever tasted made from cow's milk. The growth and preparation of
this commodity seem to be among the first objects of African industry in
this and the neighbouring states; and it constitutes a main article of
their inland commerce.
[13] I should have before observed, that I found the language of
Bambarra a sort of corrupted Mandingo.
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