BAOBAB TREE. 
1 69 
leaves have none, but to moderate the excessive 
perspiration to which they are subject in that hot 
country, by lowering the circulation of the blood. 
They also make a diet drink of the leaves to pre- 
serve them from those fevers which are common to 
the country ; and this is either sweetened with 
sugar or liquorice, to make it more palatable. The 
fruit too is very much esteemed, and is scarcely 
less useful than the leaves, since the fleshy part of 
it serves them for nourishment, either eaten alone, 
or in milk. It is likewise an object of some im- 
portance when considered in a commercial light ; 
for the Mandingues carry it to the eastern and 
central parts of Africa, whilst the Moors and Arabs 
trade with it in Morocco ; in this manner it has 
been spread over Egypt, and all the eastern side 
of the Mediterranean. It was in these last coun- 
tries that they reduced the pulp into powder, and 
exported it from the Levant under the very impro- 
per name of Terra sigillata of Lemnos. 
The ligneous bark of the husk, and the fruit it- 
self when it is spoiled, serve the negroes for soap : 
all the preparation required is to boil it with a ley 
mixed with palm oil that is turning rancid, or with 
an oil extracted from a kind of kermes, which is very 
common in certain districts. 
But the natives have another use for this tree, 
which is very singular. They make large cavities 
in the trunks of those that are rotten, forming them 
into chambers, or rather vast caverns, where they 
hang the dead bodies of such persons as have 
