444 



But it appears that the Baobab is not exclusively appropriated as a 

 receptacle of the dead ; the one measured by Golberry was hollow, 

 and used as their hall of assembly by the inhabitants of the A^alley 

 of Dock-Gagnack. The entrance was seventeen feet high, and faced 

 a lake ; the height of the cavity itself was twenty feet and its diame- 

 ter twenty-one. The negroes had ornamented the sides of the door- 

 way and the interior of the cavern with rude sculptures in relief The 

 party pitched their tents by the side of this tree, and M. Golberry was 

 so well pleased with the chamber, that he ordered his bed to be pla- 

 ced within it, intending to pass the night there. This however caused 

 so much dissatisfaction among the natives, that he abandoned his in- 

 tention, although the chiefs would not have prevented him from car- 

 rying it into effect. He states that he had no occasion to repent his 

 forbearance, having been afterwards treated with the greatest kindness 

 by the natives. 



In Dr. Wilson's notes above alluded to, it is mentioned that he 

 visited one of these trees in India, which the Bairagees whom he 

 found sitting in its shade told him was the only one in the world, and 

 requested him to take off his shoes as he approached it, an honour 

 which himself and party declined paying. He was informed that 

 several devotees nightly took up their quarters in the hollow trunk 

 of this tree. 



It is also stated that in South America the natives hollow out the 

 trunk of the Baobab and use it as a habitation, and that the tree thus 

 hollowed continues to grow and flourish so long as the sap-wood and 

 bark remain. The wild bees of Abyssinia are also reported to depo- 

 sit their honey in this tree ; and that the honey stored therein is the 

 best in the country. 



Dr. Alex. Gibson, in the Bombay ' Medical and Physical Transac- 

 tions,' states that at Goozerat, where grow many fine specimens of the 

 Baobab, the fishermen use the fruit as a float for their nets, and that 

 logs of the very light wood ai'e also employed by them as a catamai'an 

 or raft in fishing or duck-catching. 



Adanson observes that in Senegal the Baobab has almost as many 

 names as there are kingdoms. The Oualofes call the tree Goni and 

 its fruit Boui; the French call the tree calahassier, and the fruit mon- 

 keys' bread, [pain de singe). Prosper Alpinus, the first botanist who 

 wrote of this tree, says that a fruit called Baohah was brought from 

 Ethiopia to Grand Cairo ; from his description, and fi:om the notes of 

 his commentator, Wesling, there is no doubt of this fruit being that of 

 our tree, although, as Adanson observes, the fruits seen by Alpinus 



