60 PLORA OP MINEENGA.
The flora was new and interesting; but we were
amazed at not seeing better crops, as grasses with
pendent panicles grew luxuriantly ten feet high. The
surface-soil, however, was very light—merely the washings
of the hill-sides brought down in a stream of red
clay grit. In this tract of country we came upon
groups of palms, not met with since we left the coast:
they were converted into many uses—fences, thatching,
firewood, and uprights for building, &c. Toddy also
was occasionally extracted. The fruit hung down in
rich, large, tempting clusters, at the mercy of any
hungry traveller. We observed several of these palms,
with their leaf-stalks still remaining on the tree, to
be the support and life of a species of ficus, growing
like a parasite, luxuriantly healthy, its roots not near
the ground, but forming a complete network round
the stem of the palm. Tamarind-trees, so umbrageous
and beautiful in outline, were numerous. There was
also the rumex, from ten to twelve feet high; and the
tree, a ficus, whose bark affords the Waganda their
clothing, was here seen for the first time. The bark is
taken off in stripes, according to the size they can get
it, then damped and beaten by heavy wooden hammers
till pliant, and afterwards sewn into a sheet the colour
of chamois-leather, but much thicker; the outer bark
is thrown away. Near the villages a few scrubby
bushes of cotton were grown upon mounds made by
white ants. Looms of the rudest construction converted
the produce of these into a hard, very stout,
heavy cloth, about four or five feet in size, with one-
fourth of it a black border, and worn by women only.
Sessamum grew in ridges with the sorghum; its oil,
and that extracted from the ground-nut, being used
by the natives for smearing themselves from head to
foot, giving their skins a handsome colour, like the
gloss on polished marble. To vary the colour, some
red clay is added. The sorghum is sometimes affected
with a black blight, but the natives do not think this
any deterioration; all goes into the mill. They live
upon Indian corn, ulezee, and sorghum, made into
flour by rubbing the grains between stones as a house-
painter pounds colours. Their vegetables are sweet
potato, and the leaves, flowers, and fruits of pumpkins;
and they brought us daily ground-nuts, tobacco, and
fowls for sale. On the 3d of April the rice-harvest
was being gathered in; but we perceived no traces
of irrigation as in Egypt. Abundant rains gave an
ample crop. The reapers consisted of negro women
and girls, who sang pleasantly, though the scene was
marred by the sight of a gang of men-slaves, heavily
ironed together by their necks, with some superintendents,
gleaning. Those who had small knives cut the
stalk four or five inches below the grain, and held it
in their left hand till the hand was full, when it was
placed in a huge tub of bark lying in the field. In
this way a three-feet-high stubble was left standing,
to be trodden down by cattle. The thrashing of the
rice was novel. A quantity of ears was placed upon a
cow’s hide, slaves in irons were made to work it with
their toes and feet, and winnow it in the wind; and
after being thoroughly sun-dried upon a clear space of
cow-dunged ground, it was fit for the process of shelling
in the large pestle and mortar. If a considerable
amount was to be thrashed, a bludgeon answered the
purpose of the negroes’ feet. The stubble would afterwards
be turned over with powerful long-handled hoes,