188 LARGE TREES PALM-FRUIT ROADS GRAIN. 



On the 4th we again set forward. The aspect of the 

 country was still characterized by the greatest abundance, 

 and the trees became even more numerous. 



Nearly all produced edible fruit, though some were not 

 yet ripe. The trees, moreover, were on a grander scale than 

 heretofore. One kind in particular — that mentioned as 

 bearing a fruit somewhat resembling an apple — attained to 

 a most astonishing size. Indeed, the branches of one that 

 we measured spread over a space of ground one hundi-ed and 

 forty-four feet in diameter, or four hundred and thirty-two in 

 circumference! 



The palms growing hereabout — the stems of which, before 

 they began to branch out, often rose to fifty and sixty feet — 

 were, to all appearance, of the same kind as that we had 

 seen about two hundred miles to the southward ; but the 

 fruit proved very good. When slightly soaked in water — 

 which, by-the-by, is the best way of eating it — it tasted pre- 

 cisely like gingerbread. 



There appeared to be no roads of any description. For- 

 tunately, however, the harvest had just been completed, or 

 nearly so, and without damage to the owners we were there- 

 fore enabled to cross the fields as the crow flies. 



Two different kinds of grain we found indigenous to this 

 country, viz., the common CafFre-corn, said to resemble the 

 Egyptian " doura," and another sort, very small grained, 

 not unlike canary-seed, and akin, I believe, to the " badjera" 

 of India. This is the more nutritious of the two, and, when 

 well ground, produces excellent flour. 



The stalk of both these kinds of grain is stout — the thick- 

 ness of a sugar-cane — some eight or nine feet high, and juicy 

 and sweet to the taste, which has no doubt given rise to a be- 

 lief in the existence of the sugar-cane in many of the interior 

 parts of Africa. When the grain is ripe the ear is cut off, and 

 the remainder is left to the cattle, which devour it greedily. 



Besides grain, the Ovambo cultivate calabashes, water- 



