574 ABUNDANCE OF FRUIT. 



quite dry and the leaves drooped mournfully, "but the fruit-trees 

 are unaffected by a drought, except when it happens at the time 

 of their blossoming. The Batoka of my party declared that no 

 one ever dies of hunger here. We obtained baskets of maneko, 

 a curious fruit, with a horny rind, split into five pieces : these sec- 

 tions, when chewed, are full of a fine glutinous matter, and sweet 

 like sugar. The seeds are covered with a yellow silky down, and 

 are not eaten : the entire fruit is about the size of a walnut. We 

 got also abundance of the motsouri and mamosho. We saw the 

 Batoko eating the beans called nju, which are contained in a large 

 square pod ; also the pulp between the seeds of nux vomica, and 

 the motsintsela. Other fruits become ripe at other seasons, as the 

 motsikiri, which yields an oil, and is a magnificent tree, bearing 

 masses of dark evergreen leaves ; so that, from the general plenty, 

 one can readily believe the statement made by the Batoka. We 

 here saw trees allowed to stand in gardens, and some of the Bato- 

 ka even plant them, a practice seen nowhere else among natives. 

 A species of leucodendron abounds. When we meet with it on a 

 spot on which no rain has yet fallen, we see that the young ones 

 twist their leaves round during the heat of the day, so that the 

 edge only is exposed to the rays of the sun ; they have then a 

 half twist on the petiole. The acacias in the same circumstances, 

 and also the mopane {Bauhanid), fold their leaves together, and, 

 by presenting the smallest possible surface to the sun, simulate 

 the eucalypti of Australia. 



