Chap. XXVI. 
ABUNDANCE OF FKUIT. 
535 
quite dry and the leaves drooped mournfully, but tlie fruit-trees 
are unaffected by a drought, except when it happens at the time 
of their blossoming. The Batoka of my party declared that no 
one ever dies of hunger here. We obtained baskets of maneko, 
a curious fruit, with a horny rind, spht into five pieces: these 
sections, when chewed, are full of a fine glutinous matter, and 
sweet like sugar. The seeds are covered with a yellow silky 
down, and are not eaten: the entire fruit is about the size of a 
walnut. We got also abundance of the motsouri and mamosho. 
We saw the Batoka eating the beans called nju, wliich are con¬ 
tained in a large square pod; also the pulp between the seeds of 
nux vomica, and the motsintsela. Other fruits become ripe at 
other seasons, as the motsikiri, which yields an ofi., and is a magni¬ 
ficent tree, bearing masses of dark evergreen leaves; so that, from 
the general plenty, one can readily believe the statement made by 
the Batoka. We here saw trees allowed to stand in gardens, and 
some of the Batoka even plant them—a practice seen nowhere 
else among natives. A species of leucodendron abounds. When 
we meet with it on a spot on wliich no rain has yet fallen, 
we see that the y oung ones twist their leaves round during the 
heat of the day, so that the edge only is exposed to the rays of the 
sun; they have then a half twist on the petiole. The acacias in 
tlie same circumstances, and also the mopane {Bauliinia), fold their 
leaves together, and, by presenting the smallest possible smTace to 
the sun, simulate the eucalypti of Australia. 
