Note 181 — Chapter VIII

Mr. Bowen mentions a Yoruban tradition, that yams were the primitive human food. The first man vainly attempted to eat it raw: he afterwards found one accidentally roasted before the fire—somewhat like Elia’s genesis of the sucking pig—and succeeded better. Europeans, less sensible, eat the yam boiled, in which state it is detestable, though far superior to potato when roasted.