MORALA-TREE.— BUSHMEN. 183 



In passing along we see every where the power of vegetation in 

 breaking up the outer crust of tufa. A mopane-tree, growing in a 

 small chink, as it increases in size rends and lifts up large frag- 

 ments of the rock all around it, subjecting them to the disintegrat- 

 ing influence of the atmosphere. The wood is hard, and of a fine 

 red color, and is named iron-wood by the Portuguese. The in- 

 habitants, observing that the mopane is more frequently struck by 

 lio-htnins than other trees, caution travelers never to seek its shade 

 when a thunder-storm is near — " Lightning hates it ;" while an- 

 other tree, the "Morala," which has three spines opposite each 

 other on the branches, and has never been known to be touched 

 by lightning, is esteemed, even as far as Angola, a protection 

 against the electric fluid. Branches of it may be seen placed on 

 the houses of the Portuguese for the same purpose. The natives, 

 moreover, believe that a man is thoroughly protected from an en- 

 raged elephant if he can get into the shade of this tree. There 

 may not be much in this, but there is frequently some foundation 

 of truth in their observations. 



At Rapesh we came among our old friends the Bushmen, under 

 Horoye. This man, Horoye, a good specimen of that tribe, and 

 his son Mokantsa and others, were at least six feet high, and of a 

 darker color than the Bushmen of the south. They have always 

 plenty of food and water ; and as they frequent the Zouga as oft- 

 en as the game in company with which they live, their life is very 

 different from that of the inhabitants of the thirsty plains of the 

 Kalahari. The animal they refrain from eating is the goat, which 

 fact, taken in connection with the superstitious dread which ex- 

 ists in every tribe toward a particular animal, is significant of 

 their feelings to the only animals they could have domesticated 

 in their desert home. They are a merry laughing set, and do 

 not tell lies wantonly. They have in their superstitious rites 

 more appearance of worship than the Bechuanas ; and at a Bush- 

 man's grave we once came to on the Zouga, the observances show- 

 ed distinctly that they regarded the dead as still in another state 

 of being ; for they addressed him, and requested him not to be 

 offended even though they wished still to remain a little while 

 longer in this world. 



Those among whom we now were kill many elephants, and 

 when the moon is full choose that time for the chase, on account 



