8 EASTERN ETHIOPIA i 



rich in foliage nnd fertile with fniit. Alternating with 

 the mango trees are groups of cocoa-nut palms with their 

 fruit ripening in the sun, and the Papaw tree [Carica 

 papnya) with its curious fruit sessile on the upper part 

 of the stem. The male Howers are borne on a separate 

 tree from that which bears the fruit. The papaya fruit 

 when ripe is edible, but does not deserve the epithet 

 " delicious" so thoroughly merited by the fruit of the 

 mango. The fruit of the papaw is considered to aid 

 digestion, and it has been proved that the milky sap 

 (latex) which exudes from its stem and leaves contains 

 a ferment (papayotin) resembling pepsin : it is also 

 averred that if meat be wrapped in its leaves two hours 

 before being cooked it ]:)ecomes tender. 



The baobab, or monkey bread tree, al)ounds on the 

 island and adjacent coast land. This, the biggest tree in 

 the world, was named Adansonla digitata after Adanson, 

 the celebrated l)otanist. I measured the circumference 

 of the trunk of some of these trees, and found several 

 in which it exceeded sixty feet. Examples have been 

 recorded with a girth of one hundred and twelve feet. 

 These trees only bear leaves during the rainy season, 

 and the bare branches with the pendulous fruit look 

 very weird, and as they stretch heavenward recall 

 strongly the human beings transformed into trees 

 as represented in Qustav Dore's illustration of Dante's 

 seventh circle of the Inferno. There is good excuse for 

 the opinion held by some of the native tribes that these 

 fantastic trees are inhabited by ghosts. The baobab is 

 useful to the natives, for they eat the fruit, and the 

 outer shell forms an excellent calabash which is in 

 great demand for making water buckets, but its wood is 

 light, soft, and useless. The most northern baobal) grows 

 in the Palace garden, Khartoum : it was planted by 

 Schweinfurth. 



It is worth while when the tide is out to walk down 

 to the shore of the old harbour ; this is (|uite a simple 

 matter, for a pathway leads to tJie shore by the side of 



