150 THE REGION OF THE BARUJ^ 



cent teak trees, so venerable as almost to meet 

 overhead, in which green parrots and a pair of 

 quaint hornbills sat tranquilly regarding us. The 

 beauty of that mountain cascade was one so 

 curiously apart, so entirely incomparable with any- 

 thing I had ever seen in the African highlands, 

 that I fruitlessly wasted every film in my camera 

 in the chastened light, which was all too dim for 

 the purpose, in my efforts to obtain a picture. 



Unhappily the Baru^ is not well watered, and 

 only the lower portions of the great district can be 

 said to promise anything in the shape of agri- 

 cultural importance. At the present time its 

 principal — indeed I believe I am right in saying 

 its only — export consists of beeswax, of which the 

 output must be very considerable. Almost all 

 over the country you cannot go many miles with- 

 out seeing suspended in the trees the native 

 beehive, which consists of a hollow cylinder, the 

 outer bark of a certain tree which is taken skUfully 

 off when it has reached a diameter of about eighteen 

 inches, and then made into a hollow tube three or 

 four feet long. This is smeared inside vsdth the 

 juice of the sugar-cane, and attracts the vdld bees, 

 which then come and deposit their honeycombs ; 

 and as these insects are exceedingly numerous in 

 all parts of the country, it must naturally follow 

 that their wax is plentiful. 



The summits of some of the mountains, notably 

 Zemelan'gomb^, M'handa, and some others, possess 

 extensive plateau-country, where cool weather 

 rules the whole year round, and frosts in the 

 winter are not infrequent. I was informed by an 



