THE TRAVELLER'S TREE. 93 



walking along the shore in the heavy sand, with a hot sun 

 overhead, we were glad to draw from these numberless vege- 

 table springs, and thanked the Giver of these living fountains 

 in that thirsty land. We afterwards found that in some 

 villages the people supply themselves constantly from this 

 source. 



But a supply of water is only one of the many benefits the 

 coast tribes derive from this beautiful tree. All along the 

 east coast the houses are made of a slight framework, and filled 

 in with the mid-rib of the leaf of the traveller's tree in the same 

 way that the zozdro (papyrus) is used in Im^rina, and looking 

 exactly like the zozdro. The leaf-stalks are fixed together on 

 long fine twigs, so as to make a kind of stiff mat. One of 

 these forms the door on either side of the house, being shifted 

 backwards and forwards, and kept from falling by sliding 

 within a light pole hung from the framework. The flooring, 

 which is always raised above the ground, is made of the bark 

 of the traveller's tree, pressed flat so as to form a rough kind 

 of boarding. And the thatch of every house is the leaf of 

 the same tree, which forms a very neat as well as durable 

 covering. The traveller's tree might therefore, with equal 

 or greater propriety, be called " the builder's tree." The 

 green leaves also are the ordinary plates and dishes of the 

 coast people. 



It has been generally believed that the traveller's tree was 

 peculiar to Madagascar, but I find that it also grows in the 

 Malay Peninsula. In a book entitled The Land of the White 

 Elephant : Sights and Scenes in South-Eastern Asia, by Frank 

 Vincent, jun., an American traveller (London: 1873), at p. 

 109, in speaking of the neighbourhood of Singapore, the 

 writer says : " The road [leading from the town into the in- 

 terior of the island] is very pretty, being lined by tall bamboo 

 hedges and trees which, uniting above, form a complete shade ; 

 the beautiful fan-palm, or ' traveller's fountain,' as it is 

 sometimes called, will deserve especial notice, with its immense 

 spread of feathery leaves, constituting an exact semicircle." 



The tree is not again mentioned by the writer, but a 

 beautiful engraving is given of this " traveller's fountain," 

 which seems identical with our Madagascar " traveller's tree," 



