I Attribute Much Of The Bodily Health I Enjoy
To Following The Plan Adopted By Most Physicians, Who, While Engaged
In active, laborious efforts to assist the needy, at the same time
follow the delightful studies of some department of
Natural history.
The human misery and sin we endeavor to alleviate and cure may be likened
to the sickness and impurity of some of the back slums of great cities.
One contents himself by ministering to the sick and trying to remove
the causes, without remaining longer in the filth than is necessary
for his work; another, equally anxious for the public good,
stirs up every cesspool, that he may describe its reeking vapors,
and, by long contact with impurities, becomes himself infected,
sickens, and dies.
The men went about during the day, and brought back wild fruits
of several varieties, which I had not hitherto seen. One, called mogametsa,
is a bean with a little pulp round it, which tastes like sponge-cake;
another, named mawa, grows abundantly on a low bush. There are many
berries and edible bulbs almost every where. The mamosho or moshomosho,
and milo (a medlar), were to be found near our encampment.
These are both good, if indeed one can be a fair judge who felt quite disposed
to pass a favorable verdict on every fruit which had the property of being
eatable at all. Many kinds are better than our crab-apple or sloe,
and, had they the care and culture these have enjoyed, might take high rank
among the fruits of the world. All that the Africans have thought of
has been present gratification; and now, as I sometimes deposit date-seeds
in the soil, and tell them I have no hope whatever of seeing the fruit,
it seems to them as the act of the South Sea Islanders appears to us,
when they planted in their gardens iron nails received from Captain Cook.
There are many fruits and berries in the forests, the uses of which
are unknown to my companions. Great numbers of a kind of palm
I have never met with before were seen growing at and below
the confluence of the Loeti and Leeambye; the seed probably came down
the former river. It is nearly as tall as the palmyra. The fruit is larger
than of that species; it is about four inches long, and has a soft yellow pulp
round the kernel or seed; when ripe, it is fluid and stringy,
like the wild mango, and not very pleasant to eat.
Before we came to the junction of the Leeba and Leeambye
we found the banks twenty feet high, and composed of marly sandstone.
They are covered with trees, and the left bank has the tsetse and elephants.
I suspect the fly has some connection with this animal,
and the Portuguese in the district of Tete must think so too,
for they call it the `Musca da elephant' (the elephant fly).
The water of inundation covers even these lofty banks, but does not stand long
upon them; hence the crop of trees.
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