Chap. XXXIIT. EDIBLE WILD FRUITS. 
387 
age and size. Pools of stagnant water were seen 
in all directions, and flowers filled the air with a de- 
licious fragrance ; but the path, being full of holes, 
and of a miry consistence, became at times extremely 
difficult, especially for the camels. As for ourselves, 
we were well off, eating now and then some wild 
fruit, and either sucking out the pulp of the " toso," 
or devouring the succulent root of the " katakirri." 
The toso is the fruit of the Bassia Parkii, called 
kadena by the Hausa people, and consists almost 
entirely of a large kernel of the colour and size of a 
chestnut, which is covered with a thin pulp inside the 
green peel : this pulp has a very agreeable taste, but 
is so thin that it is scarcely worth sucking out. The 
tree in question, which I had lost sight of entirely 
since I left Hausa, is very common hereabouts; and 
the people prepare a good deal of butter from the 
kernel, which is not only esteemed for seasoning their 
food, but also for the medicinal qualities ascribed to 
it, and which I shall repeatedly have occasion to 
mention. As for the katakirri, it is a bulbous root, 
sometimes of the size of a large English potato, the 
pulp being not unlike that of the large radish, but 
softer, more succulent, and also very refreshing and 
nutritious. The juice has a milky colour. A man 
may easily travel for a whole clay with nothing to 
eat but this root, which seems to be very common 
during the rainy season in the woody and moist 
districts of Central Africa — at least as far as I had 
occasion to observe. It is not less frequent near 
c c 2 
