260 THE TRAVELLER'S TREE 



he stopped at, of " the well-dunged village." We could find 

 no space where the tent could be pitched, and so began to look 

 for a house. There was one in the centre of the village that 

 looked of fair size, but the difficulty was, how to get to it, for it 

 was surrounded for a considerable distance by a slough of mud 

 and cow-dung that took our men nearly up to their knees. 

 Happily there were a few stout planks lying near, and with 

 these we made a causeway over the bog. 



The following day, while waiting in the belt of wood bordering 

 the shore, we had an opportunity of testing the accuracy of 

 accounts given of the water procurable from the traveller's tree, 

 about which, although backed by the authority of Mr Ellis, 

 and an illustration in his " Three Visits to Madagascar," I had 

 always felt rather sceptical, as somewhat of " a traveller's tale." 

 In fact I had never before seen the tree where plenty of good 

 water was not to be had ; but here there was none for several 

 miles except the stagnant, brackish and offensive water of the 

 lagoon. (Even my friend, Baron, says that the tree is always 

 found where good water is procurable.) But we found that on 

 piercing with a spear or a pointed stick the lower part of one of 

 the leaf-stalks, where they all clasp one over the other, a small 

 stream of water spurted out, from which one could drink to the 

 full of good, cool, and sweet water. If one of the outer leaf- 

 stalks was forcibly pulled down, a quantity of water gushed out, 

 so that we afterwards filled a vessel with as much as we needed. 

 On examining a section of one of the stalks, a hollow channel 

 about half-an-inch in diameter is seen running all down the inner 

 side of the stalk from the base of the leaf. The large cool 

 surface of the leaves appears to collect the water condensed from 

 the atmosphere, and this is conducted by the little channel 

 downward to the base. The leaf-stalks are all full of cells and of 

 water, like those of the banana. After three hours' walking 

 along the shore in the heavy sand, with a hot sun overhead, we 

 were grateful to be able to draw from these numberless vegetable 

 springs, and we thanked God for the traveller's tree ; we felt 

 that its name was no misnomer. We afterwards found in a 

 village not far away that small water-pots were placed in a 

 hollow cut at the base of the leaves, so as to collect water for 

 drinking and household use. 



After five days' journey from Mahamamna we reached a 



