"we can make a plate, a dish, or a flask. Wild
men set great store by its shell, which they use to hold their food and
drink."

We then set to work to make plates of the gourds. When we had made some
eight or ten bowls, and some flat ones for plates, we laid them out in
the sun to dry, and then went on our way.

We could see, not far off, a grove of fine palm trees, but to reach them
we should have to pass through reeds and long grass. I knew this was
just the place to find snakes, so we each cut a cane, that we might beat
them off should we meet with any. As I took hold of my staff, I felt a
gum or juice ooze out of the end. I put my tongue to it, and found it of
a sweet taste. This led me to suck the reed, and I then knew that we had
met with the SUG-AR CANE. By this time Fritz had done the same, for I
could see that he held his cane to his mouth.

"Do not suck too much of it," said I, "or it will make you ill; but let
us cut some of the best and take them back with us, for those at home
will prize so great a treat."

It did not take us long to reach the place where the palms grew, and
then we sat down in the shade to eat the food we had brought with us.

"Do you see those nuts at the top of the trees, Fritz?" said I.

"To be sure I do; but they are far too high to reach. Look, look!" he
cried, "there are some MON-KEYS; let me have a shot at them." "Do not
do that," I said, and held his arm; "it will do us no good to kill them,
and I think I can make use of them." With that I threw some stones up at
the tree where they were, though they had got safe out of my reach. They
then made a loud noise, took hold of the nuts that were near, and flung
them straight at us. The trick made Fritz laugh, who soon had hard work
to pick up the nuts that were thrown at him.

We broke some of the nuts, and put the juice of the canes in the thick
white cream which forms close to the shell; and this made us a dish that
Fritz said was fit for a king.

Fritz and I then made fast some nuts to a string, which I tied round my
waist, while he took up his canes, and we both set off on our road home.

CHAPTER IV.

ON our way back we took up the gourd bowls and plates, which we found
quite dry and hard as bone, and put them in our bags. We had scarce got
through the wood, when Turk made a dart in front of us, and we saw a
troop of apes rush out of the way. But he gave a leap and brought down
one that could not climb so fast as the r