Chap. XXVI. ABUNDANCE OF FRUIT. 535 



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 

 sections, 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 Batoka eating the beans called nju, which are con- 

 tained 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 magni- 

 ficent 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 Batoka 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 (Bauhinia), fold then- 

 leaves together, and, by presenting the smallest possible surface to 

 the sun, simulate the eucalypti of Australia. 



