260 
WILD FRUITS. 
Chap. XIY. 
public good, stirs up every cesspool, tliat lie may describe its 
reeking vapours, and, by long contact Avitb impurities, becomes 
liimself infected, sickens, and dies. 
The men went about dmdng the day, and brought back wild 
fruits of several varieties, wliicli I had not hitherto seen. One, 
called mogametsa, is a bean with a little pulp round it, wliich 
tastes like sponge-cake; another, named mawa, grows abun¬ 
dantly on a low bush. There are many berries and edible bulbs 
almost everywhere. The mamosho or moshomosho, and milo 
(a medlar), were to be found near our encampment. These are 
both good, if indeed one can be a fair judge who felt quite dis¬ 
posed to pass a favom’able verdict on every fruit wliich had the 
property of being eatable at all. Many kinds are better than 
our crab-apple or sloe; and, had they half the care and culture 
these have enjoyed, might take high rank among the fruits of 
the world. All that the Africans have thought of has been pre¬ 
sent gi’atification; and now, as I sometimes deposit date-seeds 
in the soil, and tell them I have no hope whatever of seeing the 
fruit, it seems to them, as the act of the South-Sea Islanders 
appears to us, when they planted in their gardens iron nails 
received from Captain Cook. 
There are many fruits and berries in the forests, the uses of 
wliich are unknown to my companions. Great numbers of a kind 
of palm I have never met with before, were seen gTowing at and 
below the confluence of the Loeti and Leeambye; the seed pro¬ 
bably came down the former river. It is nearly as tall as the 
palmyra. The fruit is larger than of that species; it is about 
four inches long, and has a soft yellow pulp round the kernel, or 
seed; when ripe, it is fluid ^ind stringy, like the wild mango, 
and not very pleasant to eat. 
Before we came to the junction of the Leeba and Leeambye, 
we found the banks twenty feet high, and composed of marly 
sandstone. They are covered with trees, and the left bank has 
the tsetse and elephants. I suspect the fly has some connection 
with this animal, and the Portuguese in the district of Tete must 
think so too, for they call it the Musca da elephant (the elephant 
fly). 
The water of inundation covers even these lofty banks, but 
