ice. The water skins themselves were frozen as hard as a board *. These water skins, by the way, are goat skins, well tanned and seasoned, stripped from the carcass over the animal’s head. They are extremely convenient on a tedious journey over arid wastes and deserts. The horses and camels stood shivering with cold, and appeared to suffer much more than ourselves. The wind during the night was, as usual, from the north, and north-north-west. Dr. Oudney was extremely ill, having become much worse from catching a severe cold. We now travelled south-south-west, over a country of much the same kind of soil as that above described. As we approached the low grounds it was better wooded, and the trees were of greater size and variety. Of these, the most remarkable were the kuka and the goorjee. The kuka is of immense size, erect and majestic; sometimes measuring from twenty to twenty-five feet in circumference. The trunk and branches taper off to a point, and are incrusted with a soft, glossy, copper-coloured rind, not unlike a gummy exudation. The porous spongy trunk is straight, but the branches are twisted and tortuous. The leaves are small, somewhat like the young ash, but more pulpy, and growing in clusters from the extremities of the lesser twigs. The tree is in full leaf and blossom during the rainy months of June, July, and August. The flowers are white, large, and pendulous, somewhat resembling the white garden lily. The fruit hangs by a long stalk, and is of an oval shape, generally larger than a cocoa nut, with a hard shell full of a powdery matter, intermixed with reddish strings and tamarind-like seeds. In its unripe state it is of a beautiful velvety dark green colour, and becomes brown as it approaches maturity. The tree, whether bare of its leaves, in flower, or in full bearing, has a singularly grotesque naked * I t is much to be regretted that the state o f the thermometer was not here noted; more particularly as a question has arisen as to the correctness o f this statement, which is however repeated by Dr. Oudney almost in the same words. appearance; and, with its fruit dangling from the boughs like silken purses, might, in the imagination of some Eastern story-teller, well embellish an enchanted garden of the Genius of the Lamp. The leaves are carefully gathered by the natives, dried in the sun, and used for many culinary purposes. Boiled in water they form a kind of clammy jelly, giving a gelatinous consistence to the sauces and gravies in most common use. I have also eaten them boiled with dried meat, according to the custom of the country, but did not much relish such fare. Both leaves and fruit are considered, to a certain degree, medicinal. The leaves, mixed with trona and gussub, are given to horses and camels, both for the purpose of fattening these animals, and as a cooling aperient: they are administered to the former in balls, and to the latter as a drench. The white mealy part of the fruit is very pleasant to the taste, and forms, with water, an agreeable acidulous beverage; which the natives, whose libidinous propensities incline them to such remarks, allege to possess the virtue of relieving impotency. The goorjee tree much resembles a stunted oak, with a beautiful dark red flower, when in full blow rather like a tulip. The natives make use of the flower to assist in giving a red tinge to the mouth and teeth, as well as in seasoning their food. These two trees are generally found on a strong clayey soil, and are peculiar to Haussa and the western parts of Bornou. At noon, we came in sight of a lake called Tumbum, apparently formed by some river in the rainy season. All the country to the southward and westward, as far as the eye could reach, was a dismal swamp. Just as we arrived within a short distance of the lake,—at the very spot in which of all others the Arabs said we were most likely to encounter the Bedites,—two men made their appearance. They were dressed in the Bornouese costume; a loose tobe and drawers, with a tight cap, all of blue cotton cloth. Each carried on his shoulder a bundle of light spears, headed with iron. , I was a c 2
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