CURIOUS ROOTS 
6i 
little gray plovers ran before me in the grass, and with a 
shrill scream flew off a few yards on my near approach. 
Doves of many kinds were to be seen drinking the water as 
it trickled along the sandy river-bed. 
I had my breakfast under a huge tree, from the branches 
of which dropped little green fruit the size of cherries, and 
called by the natives ‘ good,’ and which tasted like dates. 
By-the-by, the dates I bought for the^men tasted excellent, 
2^or/l, 
although they did not look nice, being Squashed into large 
bricks. The natives dug their dirty fingers into the mass 
and abstracted a handful of what looked like mud, which 
they ate like a piece of cake. 
Under this tree there crawled in myriads an insect which 
bit one’s naked legs horribly. I called them gingerbread 
in,sects. They were round, and had the exact appearance 
of little gingerbread nuts. Under the tree were also to be 
found some very curious roots, shaped and coloured like a 
