CHAPTER V 



After leaving Toca Spring we journeyed on to a very pretty spot called 

 Moifontein (nice fountain, or pleasant waters), which fully came up to its name, 

 for the water was both good and sweet, such as we had not tasted since leaving 

 Pietersberg. Here, too, the forest became far finer. Big trees of various kinds 

 raised themselves everywhere in contrast with the monotonous mimosa forests ; 

 and the graceful melala palms were to be seen in picturesque groups denoting 

 the presence of water. Here, too, the great cream-of-tartar or baobab trees 

 abound, forming in fact the chief feature of the landscape. 



The huge trunks of these remarkable trees, some of them measuring twenty- 

 five yards in circumference, seem to be out of all proportion to the branches, the 

 latter being singularly poor and scraggy in the matter of wood, whilst the stems 

 have the appearance of being afflicted with a sort of arboreal dropsy. Nearly all 

 the trees are heavy with a nut-like fruit of which the Dutch are extremely fond. 

 Boring a hole in one side of the shell, they put water in to form a compound 

 liquid with the acid coatings of the interior, and the result is a palatable and 

 cooling drink, such as not even Sir Wilfred Lawson could object to. These 

 cream-of-tartar trees are numerous all the way along the road to Mashonaland, 

 and there is a certain silent grandeur about them, which is all the more notice- 

 able as there are so few big trees to break the monotony of most of the African 

 landscapes. Many birds make their nests in the branches, and among the more 

 lofty and isolated trees many are found with long notches in their trunks, cut by 

 the natives for the purpose of using them as watch-towers, a fine view being 

 generally obtainable from the summit. 



On the road to Moifontein, Oom Roelef and I were hunting, as usual, ahead 

 of the waggons. Passing along the base of some small kopjies we came across 

 a fine old wart-hog boar and his wife, who had evidently some knowledge of 

 mankind and did not at all wish to increase it, for the moment they caught 



