SEPT.] 
CONTINENT OF AFRICA. 
ihan they fled terrified, as from a lion. While they 
were running, full of terror, I stood wondering how 
they could possibly run so fast in so hot a day. la 
five minutes all were out of sight, concealed among 
the bushes. They were not indeed incumbered by any 
dress. 
The koker tree seems to delight to grow from th^ 
most dry and rocky ground on the hills, and is ex- 
tremely shy to descend into the plain, standing almost 
uniformly aloof on the tops of hills. Many of them eu'e 
about ten or twelve feet in circumference at the bot- 
tom, and quickly diminish in size till the branches com- 
mence, which is at a height seldom more than seven or 
eight feet ; the shape of the cluster of branches resem- 
bles that of an inverted bason ; the bark is white, in- 
termixed with light yellow, and has a shining appear- 
ance like satin. I have not seen one in flower. Alto- 
gether it seldom exceeds sixteen feet in height. 
Mr. R. preached last night, Cupido the Hottentot 
this morning, and I in the evening. Cupido illus- 
trated the immortality of the soul by alluding to the 
serpent, who, by going between two branches of a 
bush which press against each other, strips himself 
once a year of his skin. " When we find the skin," 
said he, we do not call it the serpent ; no, it is only 
its skin : neither do we say the serpent is dead ; no, 
for we know he is ajive, and has only cast his skin." 
The serpent he compared to the soul, and the skin tQ, 
the body of man. 
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