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The Spell of the lilelescho 



ha\c l<-xl. I tuis It IS tliat this stranoc husli, with its 

 sil\-cr-grey leaves and aromatic otloiir. is capable, as hardly 

 an\ tiling else is, ot awaken iiiL;' in the mind of the traveller 

 a kind ot" nostalgia — nostalgia for the wilderness, to which 

 he is drawn by so much of be,aiit\- and of hardship. We 

 have; gained v(.:ry little by learning that botanists recognise 

 oiH' jdant as one ot the Composita,-, and name; it 

 TarcJiouaiitus campJwratus, L. It is t(j be tound also 

 in other parts of Africa ; and Prolessor Fritsch reported, 

 as early as 1863, that he tound it growing in Gricjualand. 

 then still ;m imsettled countrv, where it was called the 

 " Mohatla. ' It would be a pity it its beautitully sounding 

 -Masai name were not preserved for future times, and I 

 must do my best to save " Klelescho " from such oblivion. 



One must have learned the word with its. sweet- 

 sounding pronunciation from the lips of a proud, handsome, 

 slender .Masai warrior in order to understand how so 

 seemingly slight a thing can imbue one's impression of a 

 whole land. 



The Elelescho is as prominent in those regions as 

 the oak and beech or iir in Germany, or as the juniper, 

 the headi, and the broom, and has the same influence 

 on the landscape. But it has a greater and deeper 

 influence upon the imagination, because it so dominates 

 those solitudes, that to hini who has long tra\-elled in 

 them the mere memory of it evokes a \ivid picture of 

 their once familiar aspect. The strong scent of the 

 Elelescho plant leads the Masai to wear the leaves of 

 the bush as a decoration round their ears for the .sake 

 of its perfume. It belongs thus to the plants that because 



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