616 GRAPES— THE HE. Chap. XXX. 



drinks any amount without fear. I never felt the atmosphere so 

 steamy as on the low-lying lands of the Zambesi, and yet it was 

 becoming cooler than it was on the highlands. 



We crossed the rivulets Kapopo and Ue, now running, but 

 usually dry. There are great numbers of wild grape-vines 

 growing in this quarter ; indeed they abound everywhere along 

 the banks of the Zambesi. In the Batoka country there is a 

 variety which yields a black grape of considerable sweetness. 

 The leaves are very large and harsh, as if capable of withstanding 

 the rays of this hot sun ; but the most common kinds — one with 

 a round leaf and a greenish grape, and another with a leaf closely 

 resembling that of the cultivated varieties, and with dark or 

 purple fruit — have large seeds, which are strongly astringent and 

 render it a disagreeable fruit. The natives eat all the varieties ; 

 and I tasted vinegar made by a Portuguese from these grapes. 

 Probably a country which yields the wild vines so very abundantly, 

 might be a fit one for the cultivated species. At this part of 

 the journey so many of the vines had run across the little foot- 

 path we followed, that one had to be constantly on the watch to 

 avoid being tripped. The ground was covered with rounded 

 shingle, winch was not easily seen among the grass. Pedestrian- 

 ism may be all very well for those whose obesity requires much 

 exercise, but for one who was becoming as thin as a lath, through 

 the constant perspiration caused by marching day after day in 

 the hot sun, the only good I saw in it was, that it gave an honest 

 sort of man a vivid idea of the treadmill. 



Although the rains were not quite over, great numbers of jdooIs 

 were drying up, and the ground was in many parts covered Avith 

 small, green, cryptogamous plants, which gave it a mouldy 

 appearance and a strong smell. As we sometimes pushed aside 

 the masses of rank vegetation which hung over our path, we felt 

 a sort of hot blast on our faces. Everything looked unwhole- 

 some, but we had no fever. The Ue flows between high banks 

 of a soft red sandstone streaked with white, and pieces of tufa. 

 The crumbling sandstone is evidently alluvial, and is cut into, 

 12 feet deep. In this region, too, we met with pot-holes, six feet 

 deep and three or four in diameter. In some cases they form 

 convenient wells ; in others they are full of earth ; and in others 

 still, the people have made them into graves for their chiefs. 



