The Negroes Are Much
Given To Chew This Fruit Along With The Bark Of A Certain Tree.
After
one person has chewed it a while, he gives it to his neighbour, and so
from one to another, chewing it long before they cast it away; but
swallowing none of its substance.
They attribute great virtues to this
for the teeth and gums; and indeed the negroes have usually excellent
teeth. This fruit passes also among them for money.[210] Higher within
the land they cultivate cotton, which they call innumma, and of which
they spin very good yarn with spindles, and afterwards very ingeniously
weave into cloths, three quarters of a yard broad, to make their girdles
or clouts formerly mentioned; and when sewed together it is made into
jackets and breeches for their great men. By means of a wood called
cambe, they dye their purses and mats of a red colour.
[Footnote 210: In a side-note; Purchas calls this the fruit of the
carob tree. - E.]
The tree on which the plantains grow is of considerable height, its
body being about the thickness of a man's thigh. It seems to be an
annual plant, and, in my opinion, ought rather to be reckoned among
reeds than trees; for the stem is not of a woody substance, but is
compacted of many leaves wrapped close upon each other, adorned with
leaves from the very ground instead of boughs, which are mostly two
yards long and a yard broad, having a very large rib in the middle.
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