A Fruit Called "Ndongo" By The Makololo,
"Dongolo" By The Bambiri, Resembles In Appearance A Small Plum,
Which Becomes Black
When ripe, and is good food, as the seeds are small.
Many trees are known by tradition, and one receives
Curious
bits of information in asking about different fruits that are met with.
A tree named "shekabakadzi" is superior to all others for making fire
by friction. As its name implies, women may even readily make fire by it
when benighted.
The country here is covered over with well-rounded shingle and gravel
of granite, gneiss with much talc in it, mica schist, and other rocks
which we saw `in situ' between the Kafue and Loangwa. There are
great mounds of soft red sand slightly coherent, which crumble in the hand
with ease. The gravel and the sand drain away the water so effectually
that the trees are exposed to the heat during a portion of the year
without any moisture; hence they are not large, like those on the Zambesi,
and are often scrubby. The rivers are all of the sandy kind,
and we pass over large patches between this and Tete in which,
in the dry season, no water is to be found. Close on our south,
the hills of Lokole rise to a considerable height, and beyond them flows
the Mazoe with its golden sands. The great numbers of pot-holes
on the sides of sandstone ridges, when viewed in connection with
the large banks of rolled shingle and washed sand which are met with
on this side of the eastern ridge, may indicate that the sea
in former times rolled its waves along its flanks.
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