334 THE MUKURU-MADSE. Chap. XII. 



lady, who had assumed the male attire, performed all the 

 hard duties incident to the calling of a common sailor ; 

 and, even as servant to the geologist, carried a bag of 

 stones and specimens over hills and dales without a 

 complaint, and without having her sex suspected by her 

 associates ; but on landing among the savages of one of 

 the South Sea Islands, she was instantly recognized as a 

 female. They began to show their impressions in a way 

 that compelled her to confess her sex, and throw herself 

 on the protection of the commander, which of course was 

 granted. In like manner, the earlier portions of the 

 human family may have had their instincts as to plants 

 more highly developed than any of their descendants — if 

 indeed much more knowledge than we usually suppose be 

 not the effect of direct revelation from above. 



The Mukuru-Madse has a deep rocky bed. The water 

 is generally about four feet deep, and fifteen or twenty 

 yards broad. Before reaching it, we passed five or six 

 gullies ; but beyond it the country, for two or three miles 

 from the river, was comparatively smooth. The long grass 

 was overrunning all the native paths, and one species 

 (jBanii), which has a sharp barbed seed a quarter of an inch 

 in length, enters every pore of woollen clothing and 

 highly irritates the skin. From its hard, sharp point a 

 series of minute barbs are laid back, and give the seed a 

 hold wherever it enters : the slightest touch gives it an 

 entering motion, and the little hooks prevent its working 

 out. These seeds are so abundant in some spots, that the 

 inside of the stocking becomes worse than the roughest 

 hair shirt. It is, however, an excellent self-sower, and fine 

 fodder ; it rises to the height of common meadow-grass in 

 England, and would be a capital plant for spreading over 

 a new country not so abundantly supplied with grasses as 

 this is. 



"We have sometimes noticed two or three leaves 



