Chap. IIJ. PITFALLS- TREES. 49 



animals as they come to drink. The holes are seven or eight 

 feet deep, about as long at the mouth, and three or four feei 

 wide. They gradually decrease as they descend, till they 

 are only about a foot in width at the bottom. This occasions 

 the animal to wedge himself firmly in by his weight and 

 struggles. They are usually in pairs, with a wall a foot thick 

 between the ends of each, in order that, if the beast, when he 

 feels his fore legs descending, should try to save himself, 

 he ma}* spring forward into the second. All the excavated 

 earth is removed to a distance, so as not to excite suspicion in 

 the animals. Reeds and grass are laid across the top ; and are 

 then strewn with sand, which is watered, that it may appear 

 exactly like the surrounding ground. Some of our party 

 plumped, more than once, into these pitfalls, even when 

 searching fur them that they might open them and prevent 

 the loss of our cattle. Old elephants have been known to 

 precede the herd and whisk off the coverings of the traps on 

 each side the whole way down to the water. 



The trees which adorn the banks of the Zouga are mag- 

 nificent. Two enormous baobabs (Adcmsonia digitata), or 

 mowanas, grow near its confluence with the lake. The largest 

 was 76 feet in girth. The palmyra appears here and there. 

 The mokuchong or moshoma bears an edible fruit of indif- 

 ferent quality, but the tree itself would be a fine specimen of 

 arboreal beauty in any part of the world. The trunk is often 

 converted into canoes. The motsouri, which produces a pink 

 plum containing a pleasant acid juice, resembles an orange- 

 tree in its dark evergreen foliage, and a cypress in its form. 

 It was now winter-time, and we saw nothing of the flora. 

 Wild indigo abounded, as indeed it does over large tracts of 

 Africa. It is called mohetolo, or the " changer," by the boys, 

 who colour their ornaments of straw with the juice. There 

 are two kinds of cotton in the country, and the Mashona, who 

 convert it into cloth, dye it blue with this plant. 



We found the elephants in prodigious numbers on the 

 southern bank. They come to drink by night, and throw 

 large quantities of water over their bodies. While enjoying 

 the luxury they may be heard screaming with delight. They 

 evince their horror of pitfalls by proceeding in a straight line 

 to the Desert, and never diverge till they are eight or ten 



