THE BAOBAB-TREE. 6i The next day we followed a regular caravan-route, which ran not far from the Gash, on its south bank. A thick grove of dhoiim-'2Xm lined either side, and we passed one or two small villages.

We came across game, and shot two ariel and a gazelle.

Partridges were seen for the first time, and one or two added to the bag ; a most acceptable addition to the larder, although they were not such good eating as chickens, notwithstanding the fact that the domestic fowl, as bred in the Soudan, is a most diminutive and skinny bird. Lort Phillips fired twice at an ariel without hitting it, and was surprised to find that the animal took no notice of his shots ; it allowed him to approach to within a few yards of it, when the mystery of its apparent temerity was solved. The poor brute had been caught in a snare, which was round one of its hind-legs, and which was considerably injured by it. He terminated its existence by a shot through the shoulder, and sent it off on the back of a camel to grace All's kitchen.

We saw, for the first time, the baobab-tree {Adamsonia digitatd). This well-known tree, so frequently described in books of African travel, became henceforth a familiar feature in the landscape : it is most weird and elfish-looking, having a gigantic trunk, giving out branches altogether disproportionate to its size, and, at the time of year we travelled, was entirely without leaves. The fruit, which is white and dry, grows in an oval green pod, and has a rather agreeable acrid flavour j but a little goes a long way. The natives are very fond of it, and we were told that the Base frequently lived on it for a long time together ; besides eating it raw, they pound it up, mix it with water, and cook it. On the third day out from Cassala, as we were breaking up camp, we noticed a caravan loaded with dhurra going by ; and