282 
BANANA TREE. 
is from this plant that the natives of Manado make 
their bags and hammocks. 
Thus is the banana proved to be of the most 
essential service to mankind. In those climates 
that are congenial to its nature it propagates abun- 
dantly, and is of more use than the cocoa-nut, in- 
asmuch as it is more generally diffused. Its fruit 
likewise is of far more consequence, since it con- 
tributes so largely to the nourishment of the natives. 
It may indeed be said to form their first food, at 
least in that part of the country where the rice is 
scarce. Infants at the breast are fed with the roasted 
fruit, which the mother forms into a pap, by first 
chewing it in her own mouth, and then passing it 
into the child’s. 
The ensete , a plant described and figured by Mr. 
Bruce, has been supposed by some to be a species 
of musa, though the Abyssinian traveller is not of 
the same opinion. The ensete is a native of Narea, 
where it grows in the great marshes and swamps for 
which that province is remarkable. This, as well as 
the coffee tree, is said to have been unknown in Abys- 
sinia before the arrival of the Galla, a neighbour- 
ing people, who imported them at the same time. 
It comes to great perfection about Gondar ; but the 
principal plantations of it are in that part of Maitsha 
and Goutto, to the west of the Nile, where it is al- 
most the only food of the Galla, who inhabit that 
country. Indeed, if it were not for this plant, they 
would be miserably off' for vegetable food, since, 
Maitsha being almost upon a level, the rains are apt 
