leave the impression on the mind of groping in the dark: it may be all
different when we come to see it.

The fruit of the palm, which yields palm-oil, is first of all boiled,
then pounded in a mortar, then put into hot or boiling water, and the
oil skimmed off. The palm-oil is said to be very abundant at Ujiji, as
much as 300 gallons being often brought into the bazaar for sale in
one morning; the people buy it eagerly for cooking purposes. Mohamad
says that the Island of Pemba, near Zanzibar, contains many of these
palms, but the people are ignorant of the mode of separating the oil
from the nut: they call the palm Nkoma at Casembe's, and Chikichi at
Zanzibar.[60]

No better authority for what has been done or left undone by
Mohamadans in this country can be found than Mohamad bin Saleh, for he
is very intelligent, and takes an interest in all that happens, and
his father was equally interested in this country's affairs. He
declares that no attempt was ever made by Mohamadans to proselytize
the Africans: they teach their own children to read the Koran, but
them only; it is never translated, and to servants who go to the
Mosque it is all dumb show. Some servants imbibe Mohamadan bigotry
about eating, but they offer no prayers. Circumcision, to make
_halel_, or fit to slaughter the animals for their master, is the
utmost advance any have made. As the Arabs in East Africa never feel
themselves called on to propagate the doctrines of Islam, among the
heathen Africans, the statement of Captain Burton that they would make
better missionaries to the Africans than Christians, because they
would not insist on the abandonment of polygamy, possesses the same
force as if he had said Mohamadans would catch more birds than
Christians, because they would put salt on their tails. The