332 TRAVELS IN 
waggon, it makes little difference in point of time whether it- 
be laden or empty. And the more of these loose articles he 
can bring to market, the fewer cattle he has occasion to dis- 
pose of to the butcher. These constitute his wealth, and 
with these he portions off his children. 
Candles being an unsafe article to transport bj land car- 
riage are seldom brought out of the country ; but a 
vegetable Wax, collected from the berries of a shrubby plant, 
the myrica cerifera, plentiful on the dry marshy grounds near 
the sea-shore, is sometimes sent up to the Cape in large green 
cakes, where it may be had at from a shilling to fifteenpence a 
pound. The tallov/ to be purchased at the Cape is barely 
sufficient for the consumption of the town and the garrison, 
and the candles made from it are seldom lower than fifteen- 
pence a pound. 
ALOES. 
This drug is extracted from the common species of aloe 
known by the specific name of perfoliata, and is that variety 
which, perhaps on account of the abundant quantity of juice 
it contains, botanists have distinguished by the name of sue- 
cotrina, though vulgarly supposed to have taken the name 
from the island of Socotra, where this drug is said to be pro- 
duced of the best quality, in which case, at all events, it ought 
to be socotrina. 
Large tracts of ground, many miles in extent, are covered 
with spontaneous plantations of this kind of aloe, and espc- 
