The Rushes In This Case
Perform The Part Of The Hedges, And The Moisture Rising As Dew By Night
Fixes The Sand Securely Among The Roots, And A Height,
Instead Of A Hollow, Is The Result.
While on this subject it may be added
that there is no perennial fountain in this part of the
Country
except those that come from beneath the quartzose trap,
which constitutes the "filling up" of the ancient valley;
and as the water supply seems to rest on the old silurian schists
which form its bottom, it is highly probable that Artesian wells
would in several places perform the part which these deep cuttings now do.
The aspect of this part of the country during most of the year
is of a light yellow color; for some months during the rainy season
it is of a pleasant green mixed with yellow. Ranges of hills
appear in the west, but east of them we find hundreds of miles
of grass-covered plains. Large patches of these flats are covered
with white calcareous tufa resting on perfectly horizontal strata of trap.
There the vegetation consists of fine grass growing in tufts
among low bushes of the "wait-a-bit" thorn (`Acacia detinens'),
with its annoying fish-hook-like spines. Where these rocks
do not appear on the surface, the soil consists of yellow sand
and tall, coarse grasses, growing among berry-yielding bushes,
named moretloa (`Grewia flava') and mohatla (`Tarchonanthus'),
which has enough of aromatic resinous matter to burn brightly,
though perfectly green. In more sheltered spots we come on clumps
of the white-thorned mimosa (`Acacia horrida', also `A. atomiphylla'),
and great abundance of wild sage (`Salvia Africana'),
and various leguminosae, ixias, and large-flowering bulbs:
the `Amaryllis toxicaria' and `A. Brunsvigia multiflora'
(the former a poisonous bulb) yield in the decayed lamellae
a soft, silky down, a good material for stuffing mattresses.
In some few parts of the country the remains of ancient forests
of wild olive-trees (`Olea similis') and of the camel-thorn (`Acacia giraffe')
are still to be met with; but when these are leveled
in the proximity of a Bechuana village, no young trees spring up
to take their places. This is not because the wood has a growth so slow
as not to be appreciable in its increase during the short period
that it can be observed by man, which might be supposed from its being
so excessively hard; for having measured a young tree of this species
growing in the corner of Mr. Moffat's garden near the water, I found
that it increased at the rate of a quarter of an inch in diameter annually
during a number of years. Moreover, the larger specimens,
which now find few or no successors, if they had more rain in their youth,
can not be above two or three hundred years old.
It is probable that this is the tree of which the Ark of the Covenant
and the Tabernacle were constructed, as it is reported to be found
where the Israelites were at the time these were made.
It is an imperishable wood, while that usually pointed out
as the "shittim" (or `Acacia nilotica') soon decays and wants beauty.
In association with it we always observe a curious plant, named ngotuane,
which bears such a profusion of fine yellow strong-scented flowers
as quite to perfume the air. This plant forms a remarkable exception
to the general rule, that nearly all the plants in the dry parts of Africa
are scentless, or emit only a disagreeable odor. It, moreover,
contains an active poison; a French gentleman, having imbibed
a mouthful or two of an infusion of its flowers as tea, found himself rendered
nearly powerless. Vinegar has the peculiar property of rendering this poison
perfectly inert, whether in or out of the body. When mixed with vinegar,
the poison may be drunk with safety, while, if only tasted by itself,
it causes a burning sensation in the throat. This gentleman described
the action of the vinegar, when he was nearly deprived of power
by the poison imbibed, to have been as if electricity had run along his nerves
as soon as he had taken a single glassful. The cure was
instantaneous and complete. I had always to regret want of opportunity
for investigating this remarkable and yet controllable agent
on the nervous system. Its usual proximity to camel-thorn-trees
may be accounted for by the PROBABILITY that the giraffe,
which feeds on this tree, MAY make use of the plant as a medicine.
During the period of my visit at Kuruman, Mr. Moffat, who has been
a missionary in Africa during upward of forty years, and is well known
by his interesting work, "Scenes and Labors in South Africa",
was busily engaged in carrying through the press, with which
his station is furnished, the Bible in the language of the Bechuanas,
which is called Sichuana. This has been a work of immense labor;
and as he was the first to reduce their speech to a written form,
and has had his attention directed to the study for at least thirty years,
he may be supposed to be better adapted for the task than any man living.
Some idea of the copiousness of the language may be formed from the fact
that even he never spends a week at his work without discovering new words;
the phenomenon, therefore, of any man who, after a few months' or years'
study of a native tongue, cackles forth a torrent of vocables,
may well be wondered at, if it is meant to convey instruction.
In my own case, though I have had as much intercourse with the purest idiom
as most Englishmen, and have studied the language carefully,
yet I can never utter an important statement without doing so very slowly,
and repeating it too, lest the foreign accent, which is distinctly perceptible
in all Europeans, should render the sense unintelligible. In this I follow
the example of the Bechuana orators, who, on important matters,
always speak slowly, deliberately, and with reiteration.
The capabilities of this language may be inferred from the fact that
the Pentateuch is fully expressed in Mr. Moffat's translation in fewer words
than in the Greek Septuagint, and in a very considerably smaller number
than in our own English version.
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