Cbap. XIV. WILD FRUITS. 177 



people is to make the subject plain. The minds of the 

 auditors cannot be understood by one who has not mingled 

 much with them. They readily pray for the forgiveness oi 

 sins, and then sin again; confess the evil of it, and there the 

 matter ends. 



The men went about during the day, and brought back 

 wild fruits of several varieties which I had not hitherto seen 

 One, called mogametsa, is a bean with a little pulp round it, 

 which tastes like sponge-cake ; another, named mawa, grows 

 abundantly on a low bush. Berries and edible bulbs abound. 

 The mamosho or moshomosho, and milo (a medlar), were to 

 be found near our encampment, and were good to our taste. 

 Many kinds are better than our crab-apple or sloe, and with 

 care and culture might take high rank among the fruits of the 

 world. The Africans, however, think nothing of posterity ; 

 and when I sometimes deposited date-seeds in the soil, and 

 told them I had no hope whatever of seeing the fruit, they 

 viewed the act much as we do that of the South-Sea Islanders 

 when they planted in their gardens the iron nails received 

 from Captain Cook. 



Many of the fruits and berries in the forests were unknown 

 to my companions. Great numbers of a new kind of palm 

 were seen growing about the confluence of the Loeti and (38) 

 Zambesi, the seed of which probably came down the former 

 river. It is nearly as tall as the palmyra, and yields a larger 

 fruit, with a soft yellow pulp round the kernel : when ripe 

 it is fluid and stringy, like the wild mango, and not very 

 pleasant to eat. 



Below the junction of the Leeba and Zambesi the banks of 

 the latter river are twenty feet high and covered with trees. 

 The inundations cover even these lofty banks, but, as the 

 water does not stand long upon them, the trees flourish. The 

 left bank is frequented by the tsetse and elephants, and I 

 suspect that some connection exists between these two, as the 

 Portuguese in the district of Tete imply when they call it the 

 Musca da elephant (the elephant-fly) . 



On the right bank, or that which the Loeti joins, there 

 is an extensive flat country called Manga, which, though 

 covered with grass, is destitute in a great measure of trees. 



Flocks of green pigeons rose from the trees as we passed 



