COPAL, 



275 



sand, a narrow path threading the dwarf planta- 

 tions of maize and manioc, of cucumber, pulse 

 (Lobiya), and the castor plant groY\^ing every- 

 where wild. Crossing, after some 200 yards, a 

 sandy Nullah, which supplies sweet water, we 

 came to a rank and reeking, a thorny and cloth- 

 tearing vegetation, and to thick, coarse spear- 

 grass, burned down in the dry weather: this 

 is the home of the spur-fowl, the Kudu, and 

 other antelopes. Three miles (by pedometer) 

 of damp trudging, a shower having fallen last 

 night, placed us before the first Msandariisi,^ or 

 copal tree (Hymenoea verrucosa. Boivin). It was 

 growing in a thicket upon a flat covered with 

 Mimosas, Hyphoenas, and various palms, the 

 cocoa being absent. The specimen, though 

 young, was some 30 feet tall, and measured 

 about a yard in girth : it was not in flower nor in 

 fruit ; the latter, according to the people, is a 

 berry like a grain of Muhindi (maize). Climb- 



^ From the Arab Saudarus, which their pharmacopoeia 

 applies to the transparent resin Sandaraca or Sandaraeh. Our 

 copal is a corruption of the Mexican Kopali — any gum. It is 

 called anime or animi in the London market, and by the 

 workman French varnish. The copals of Mexico, of New 

 Zealand (popularly termed Cowace copal), and of the AVest 

 African coast, are inferior kinds. The ' Damar,' or gum found 

 about Cape Delgado, floats in water, and may be unripe copal 

 washed out by the wet season. 



