Note 91 — Chapter IV

The Fantis call it Sabla or Sambalá (which the Preface to the History, p. viii., and Introduction, p. 5, turn into Assabah, and opine to be an oxyglycus) and the Ffon terms it Sisnah. It is the Ossessossa of the Bonny R., and grows everywhere on the Gold Coast and in the Bights. The fruit is a brab-like berry, cherry-red and yellow, with a thin white pulp and a large black stone. It is hardly capable of making “a lime taste like a very ripe china orange, or vinegar like sweet wine” (loc. cit.), but it sweetens water with a cloying taste, and remains long upon the palate. Perhaps it might be useful in sugar-making. Dr. M‘Leod exaggerates still further its peculiarities:—“Whoever eats this berry in the morning, must be content, at least for that day, to forego the natural flavour of every kind of food, whether animal or vegetable” (pp. 21-22).