308 
USEFUL PLANTS AND TREES. 
of Usui, which is on the road to Zanzibar. This metal 
was more commonly worn than copper ; being an im- 
portation, it seemed to be in greater favour. 
The dwellings were detached grass huts, generally 
in the middle of plantain orchards, and forming three 
sides of a hollow square, with some charmed poles 
outside. A store-hut raised upon piles is built in the 
centre space, to contain their grain, hoes, &c. The 
bark-cloth tree, or ficus, which we had not seen for 
several months, abounds in the district, but never 
grows to any great size. The people collect the flat 
linear leaves of a rush growing on the river-bank, 
and extract salt from them. After being dried and 
burnt the ashes are washed, and the water, which be- 
comes impregnated with salt, is used to boil potato or 
plantain. Some leaves of this rush measure fourteen 
feet. The papyrus is here converted into door-screens 
(like a hurdle). Strips from its stem bleach white in 
drying, and make beautiful fish-creels, while its pith 
is converted into wrappers or coverings for jars of 
wine. The pith-wood supplies floats, door-bolts, and 
oval-shaped shields to the people. A tree with com- 
pound leaves was an object of Phallic worship — the 
only instance of the kind we knew of. These, with 
the universal bottle - gourd, were amongst the most 
useful plants we observed. 
We found fresh eggs placed in the forks of trees 
near houses, said to be put there as medicine or M'ganga. 
None were rotten, though several placed similarly in 
the ceilings of the huts were shaken, to try them, and 
then replaced. The spoil of hippos, their skulls, tusks, 
&c, lay in small heaps near the houses of those who 
possessed tackle for killing them. It was not thought 
