etu, with us, as a means of testing the difference of
prices between the Portuguese, whom we expected to reach, and the white
traders from the south. Moriantsane supplied us well with honey, milk,
and meal. The rains were just commencing in this district; but, though
showers sufficient to lay the dust had fallen, they had no influence
whatever on the amount of water in the river, yet never was there less
in any part than three hundred yards of a deep flowing stream.

Our progress up the river was rather slow; this was caused by waiting
opposite different villages for supplies of food. We might have done
with much less than we got; but my Makololo man, Pitsane, knew of the
generous orders of Sekeletu, and was not at all disposed to allow them
to remain a dead letter. The villages of the Banyeti contributed large
quantities of mosibe, a bright red bean yielded by a large tree. The
pulp inclosing the seed is not much thicker than a red wafer, and is
the portion used. It requires the addition of honey to render it at all
palatable.

To these were added great numbers of the fruit which yields a variety of
the nux vomica, from which we derive that virulent poison strychnia. The
pulp between the nuts is the part eaten, and it is of a pleasant juicy
nature, having a sweet acidulous taste. The fruit itself resembles a
large yellow orange, but the rind is hard, and, with the pips and bark,
contains much of the deadly poison. They evince their noxious qualities
by an intensely bitter taste. The nuts, swallowed inadvertently, cause
considerable pain, but not death; and to avoid this inconvenience, the
people dry the pulp before the fire, in order to be able the more easily
to get rid of the noxious seeds.

A much better fruit, called mobola, was also presented to us. This
bears, around a pretty large stone, as much of the fleshy part as the
common date, and it is stripped off the seeds and preserved in bags in
a similar manner to that fruit. Besides sweetness, the mobola has the
flavor of strawberries, with a touch of nauseousness. We carried some of
them, dried as provisions, more than a hundred miles from this spot.

The next fruit, named mamosho (mother of morning), is the most delicious
of all. It is about the size of a walnut, and, unlike most of the other
uncultivated fruits, has a seed no larger than that of a date. The
fleshy part is juicy, and somewhat like the cashew-apple, with a
pleasant acidity added. Fruits similar