443 



keeping up an abundant perspiration and cooling the blood. Adan- 

 son and one of the French officers who accompanied him, made use of 

 the lalo rather freely, and to it he attributes their preservation from 

 the ardent fevers so prevalent in Senegal during September and Oc- 

 tober. The author particularly mentions the year 1751, the autumn of 

 which year was more than usually unhealthy in Senegal, and states 

 that himself and his friend were the only persons of the party who 

 were able to follow their usual avocations, all the other officers being 

 confined to their beds. The fruit of the Baobab appears to be as use- 

 ful as the leaves ; in a recent state its flesh is slightly acid and of an 

 agreeable flavour, and its juice, mixed with sugar and water, forms a 

 refreshing beverage in putrid and pestilential fevers. The fleshy en- 

 velope of the seeds, when dry, is I'educed to an impalpable powder ; 

 P. Alpinus says it was sold in his time as a medicine, under the im- 

 proper name of terra sigillata, or Lemnian earth. Monkeys are said 

 to feed on the seeds ; these are about the size of a bean, shining, and 

 of a brownish colour, and are made into necklaces by the negroes. 

 The shell of the fruit, and even the fruit itself when spoiled for eating, 

 is burned, and the ley obtained from the ashes, boiled with rancid 

 palm oil, forms an excellent soap. 



Our author concludes his account of the various uses made of the 

 Baobab, with the following singular narrative. It has been previously 

 stated that the roots of such trees as grow in stony ground are liable 

 to injury, and that in consequence their trunks decay and become 

 hollow. The negroes take advantage of the cavities thus formed, and 

 shape them regularly into chambers, or rather vast caverns, wherein 

 they deposit the bodies of those whom they deem unworthy to receive 

 the ordinary rites of burial. Of this class are persons called guiriots ; 

 these are the poets, musicians and players, of both sexes, who are 

 hired to preside over and assist at dances and other entertainments, to 

 which they impart much life and spirit by their buff'ooneries. The 

 negroes regard these people, while living, with a kind of superstitious 

 awe and reverence, but no sooner are they dead, than such feelings 

 give place to horror and contempt ; the natives then neither allow 

 their bodies to be buried in the earth nor cast into the waters, ima- 

 gining that if thus disposed of, the fish in the latter would be destroy- 

 ed, and that the former would produce no food. By way of averting 

 these evils the bodies of the guiriots are suspended within the hollow 

 tmnks of the Baobab, the entrances to which are closed with planks, 

 and there, without being embalmed, they quickly dry up and become 

 converted into a kind of mummy. 



