A Thousand Miles in a Machilla 



with being very digestible; the rind is thick, and 

 the interior filled with black seeds from which 

 pepsin is extracted. 



The altitude was here about two thousand four 

 hundred feet, a fair rise, but the temperature was 

 still hot. We had, however, plenty of shade. Our 

 tent was pitched under a large Kigelia, or "sausage" 

 tree, to use the name by which it is more generally 

 known. These trees are as high as a good sized 

 oak, with large broad leaves, a purple, trumpet- 

 shaped flower, and sausage -shaped seed pods of a 

 grey colour, as thick as a man's thigh, often two 

 feet in length, and very heavy. We frequently 

 pitched our tent under these trees, for the sake of 

 the shade they afforded, but an eye has to be kept 

 on the "sausages," for they only hang from a very 

 slender stem, and would injure any one upon whom 

 they might fall. 



Although the surrounding forest was very dry, 

 the vegetation along the banks of the river was fine 

 with tall timber, including the Baobab (Adansonid) 

 Tebilda tree, as it is called in the Soudan the 

 hoary old man of the forest, with its giant grey 

 trunk covered with curious excrescences. When 

 devoid of leaves it has a very bare appearance, 

 enhanced by the bright red colour of its flowers, 

 which bloom and fade before the leaves appear. 

 The fruit, something like a large green nut, contains 

 a white pulp of subacid flavour, tartaric acid in fact, 

 and it is full of seeds. Monkeys are said to be very 

 fond of it, and I believe elephants also. 



It is difficult to realize at first that September in 



50 



