WHAT THEY EAT IN TIMBUCTOO

The population of Timbuctoo live very comfortably and there is seen very few signs of poverty or begging among them.
They have three meals a day. The first at 9 in the morning is of small new baked wheat loaves which when eaten are dipped into honey and melted butter,
A main meal is served at mid afternoon, about three o'clock, and consist of two or three courses of kuskus, vegetables and a meat, usually mutton, beef, or a poultry, sometimes pigeon, very tastefully prepared.    What are kuskus?   They are made of the flour of wheat, barley, maize or negro millet, which is moistened , finger picked, let to dry in the sun.  Next they are steamed, strewn over with saffron sauce and the vegetables and meat of choice.
The third meal taken late in the evening,   nine or ten,  is almost always rice mixed with small chunks of meat.
There are no spirituous liquors drunk, the meal washed down with water from the calabashes.

From the collections of the Exchange publication.