CHAPTER IV 



THE MELON AND THE MAIL 



Days from a Diary {continued) 



Friday, 10th May. — Started before sunrise. 

 Here we saw the first tsamma melon growing 

 bravely in the sterile sand. The first question 

 put by the traveller who proposes to cross the 

 Kalahari Desert is not " Can I obtain water ? " 

 but " Can I obtain tsamma ? " With tsamma 

 he is safe ; without it he may die. And so im- 

 portant is this economic plant in the conquest 

 of the desert that it is of interest to recall 

 what Livingstone wrote as he was crossing the 

 Kalahari in 1849 : 



" But the most surprising plant of the desert 

 is the water-melon, Kengwe or Kerne (Cucumis 

 caffer). When more than the usual quantity 

 of rain falls, vast tracts of the country are 

 literally covered with these melons. This 

 happens every ten or eleven years. Then 

 animals of every sort, including man, rejoice in 

 c 33 



