Our viands

There are innumerable varieties of this useful cereal, some being almost black, some quite white, others red, and the commonest variety yellow. The size of the grain also varies greatly from large kernels, pressed tightly together on the cob so as to form a compact mass difficult to separate, to very small grains of opal-like lustre scarcely larger than a good grain of wheat, and so arranged on the little cob as to retain a rounded egg-like form, pointed at the extremity. This is the kind which is grown especially for eating as green corn, being peculiarly tender and delicate. Parched Indian corn is much eaten by the natives, and it is said that an Indian will subsist a long time on 42 OUR VIANDS six or eight ounces per day of parched corn mixed with water. The dried leaves also form an excellent forage for horses and cattle, and in Mexico the green stalks are cut and eaten as a sweetmeat, there being a large amount of sugar in them. The tortillas of Mexico, so often mentioned in books of travel, are made, according to Captain Lyon, of crushed maize formed with water into unleavened cakes, baked on the hearth, and eaten with a sauce compounded of chilies. ' In the houses of respectable people a woman, called from her office, Tortillera, is kept for the express purpose of making these cakes; and it sounds very oddly to the ear of a stranger, during meal-times to hear the rapid patting and clapping which goes forward in the cooking-place until all demands are satisfied.' It may be observed that among the cereals regarded by the Chinese as of the first importance, the two millets are almost unknown among ourselves. They never figure among the grains in common use, and, although frequently used on the Continent as a thickening for soups, and sometimes in England for making milk-puddings, they are seldom found in English kitchens. Yet under the name of Dourah one of the millets forms the chief food of the Egyptians; and Guinea or Kaffir corn is almost as much used as maize or wheat all over the African continent, where three harvests of it may be reaped yearly. It is also largely consumed in Arabia, Syria, and in the West Indies among the negroes. It was doubtless much more used anciently than at present, being especially suited to countries where little rain falls, and the soil is too poor and sandy for the cultivation of wheat or maize. MAIZE AND MILLET 43 Buck-wheat, which is much grown on the Continent as food for cattle and poultry, is not used for human food, except among the very poor, who sometimes mix it with a little flour and make of it a black bitterish bread, not at all appetising or nourishing ; but all kinds of birds and animals are very fond of it, and it is grown for feeding pheasants in England, and also for bees, who collect much honey from the blossoms. Pigs are said to become in- toxicated by eating buck-wheat, and are quickly fattened upon it, whilst it causes cows fed upon it to yield a larger quantity of rich milk. CHAPTER III VARIOUS BREAD-STUFFS WE have passed in review the bread-stuffs used in Europe and America, but there remains a very important class of bread-making material very little known to us, but affording nourishment to many thousands in some of our Colonies.