Chap7naiis Travels in Souf/i Africa 223 



is dirty, full of flies, beetles, butterflies, and locusts. I have seen birds securely 

 bound in these strong silken cords. It has a very unctuous feel, and to this 

 property is due the spiders' great success. I have got a small sample of clean 

 silk also. " — (vol ii., p. 293.) 



A good deal of desultory information is given as to the fruits 

 and cultivated vegetables of the country, but too often without 

 means of distinguishing the plants, except by the native names. 

 The following statement as to producing bitter and sweet melons 

 from the same seed by different treatment, may be interesting to 

 horticulturists, not on account of different qualities proceeding 

 from the same plant {that is known to occur in other species) ; but 

 on account of the statement that the kind can be determined by 

 the manure : 



" It appears strange that one melon seed should produce both bitter and 

 sweet or sourish melons, which is the fact, though it has puzzled many 

 travellers, who generally believe the melons are two different species, but this is 

 not the case, and it all depends upon the manure it gets. The seeds deposited 

 with the dung of elephants are bitter, those manured by the white rhinoceros 

 sweet. Sometimes they are mixed on one field, at other times the sweet 

 melon are sought in the grazings and near the haunts of the rhinoceros. The 

 bitter melons are not always eaten, on account of their extreme bitterness, but 

 the seeds being taken out and pounded between two stones, the meal is boiled 

 into a nice pottage, or eaten raw." — (vol. i., p. 297.) 



A case exactly the converse of this is also mentioned, where the 

 same plant is poisonous to one animal, and harmless to another. 

 It appears that a Euphorbia and another milky bush is used by 

 the Berg Damaras to kill numbers of animals, by infecting pools 

 of water with their juice, and that they also kill the white rhino- 

 ceros with the drug, although the black one eats greedily of the 

 same bush with perfect impunity — (vol. i., p. 342.) 



There are instances of something similar occurring in other ani- 

 mals which prevent us hastily setting this aside as erroneous, but 

 we have not space to describe them. 



The kinds of domestic animals kept by the natives in the 

 interior are not numerous. 



" None of the natives that I have yet seen have any cattle or goats, but fowls 

 and dogs are common. The latter are very small, but have great spirit and 

 endurance, enabling their masters to kill tlie largest animals with their aid." — 

 (vol. ii., p. 207.) 



" The dogs kept by the natives are all a very diminutive mongrel species, 

 vei-y weak in giving tongue, and with little spirit." — (vol. i., p. 93.) 



