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Quercus Lucombeana sae tie ea RE ae ge RE ss 
Cedrus Libani... ae ate Set SOP GE 6 5, a 
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BiB 
Baobab Trees used for Storage of Water.—Sir Joseph Hooker has 
called our attention to an account of the manner in which the natives 
of Kordofan form reservoirs for rain water in the trunks of living 
Baobab trees ( Adansonia digitata). The paper by Captain Watkiss 
Lloyd, late Governor of Kordofan, Soudan, from which the 
following extract is taken is published in the Geographical Journal, 
March, 1910, pp. 253-254, with an illustration of the tree on p. 251. 
The country referred to lies to the west of El Obeid. 
‘‘ Elsewhere the people are dependent on water-melons and the 
water they store in baobab trees. The melons are small and almost 
tasteless, and are grown in enormous quantities amongst the corn. 
When ripe they are collected in heaps and protected from the sun 
until required for use. 
“The baobab trees have to be carefully prepared for use as 
reservoirs. The large branches are first cut off near the trunk. If 
this is not done, the trunk is apt to split as soon as it is hollowed 
out. ole is cut in the trunk, generally just above a branch, 
which serves as a platform for the man who is filling the tree, and 
the interior is hollowed out. Round the bottom of the tree a 
shallow basin some 20 or 30 feet in diameter is made, in which the 
rain-water collects. As soon as there is a storm, the people go out 
and fill their trees. The water so stored remains perfectly good 
until the end of the next hot weather, or even longer. A few trees, 
naturally hollow, have a hole at the top between the branches, and 
fill themselves, the branches catching the water and acting as 
Sdn These are called ‘lagai,’ and are highly valued by the 
amars. 
“The Arabs did not invent this method of storing water, but 
improved on the system of their predecessors, who made the hole in 
the trunk only 10 or 12 feet from the ground. The present system 
gives a cistern 20 feet high and from 8 to 10 feet, or even more in 
diameter. Owing to the labour involved in preparing and filling 
the trees, water is usually bought and sold, and on the main roads 
where there is much traffic, as between Nahud and Jebel el Hilla 
on the way to El Fasher, the capital of Darfur, the people do a 
regular trade by supplying merchants and travellers with water. 
“The bucket, calle ilwa,’ used by the Arabs deserves 
mention. It consists of a piece of leather suspended by strings 
6 inches long from a piece of wood bent in a circle, to which the 
rope used for drawing the water is fastened by three of four 
strings. On reaching the bottom of the well the leather opens out 
and collects the water, however little there may be,” 
