, 1886-08-07
PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN TREES.
Facts which Seem Fancies About tn
vycnd.rfuv Rnohah-

Facts which Seem Fancies About tho
Wonderful Baobab.
We read wonderful stories of the i'm
mense trees one sees in California, but
they sink into insignifcance beside the
Baobab tree which l found in western
Africa, principally just south of the des-
ert of Sahara. 1t Is not distinguished
for its extraordinary height, which
rarely reaches over 100 feet, but it is the
most imposing and magnificent of Afri-
a trees; many, it is said, are i've 100
feet in circumference. rising like n dwarf
tower from twenty to thirty feet, and then
throwing out branches like a miniature
forest to a distance of 100 feet, the ex-
tremities of the branches bending toward
the ground. The leaves are large,
abundant and of a dark green color, di-
vided into five radiating lanceolate leaf
lets. The flowers are large and white,
hanging to peduncles of a yard in length,
which forms a striking contrast to the
leaves. The fruit is a soft, pulpy, dry
substance about the size of a citron, IN
closed in a long. green pod; the pulp be-
tween the seeds taste like cream OF tar
tar, and this pulp, as well as the pressed
juice from the leaves, is used by the ma
tive Africans for flavoring their food.
The juice is greatly relished as a bever-
age, and is considered a remedy in putrid
fevers and many other diseases.
The Baobab is said to attain a much
sands of years being hazarded as the term
of life of some specimens. 1t has extra
ordinary vitality; the bark, which is regu-
larly stripped off to be made into ropes,
nets for fishing, trapping and native
clothing speedily grows again. No ex-
ternal injury, not ever fire, a destroy
it from without; nor can it be hurt from
within, as specimens have been found in
full %splendor, with the inside of the trunk
followed out into n chamber which could
hold a score of people. One-half Of the
trunk may be cut or burned away-even
the tree may be cut down, and while
lying on the ground, so long as there is
the slightest connection with the roots it
will grow and yield fruit. 1t dies from
a very peculiar disease-a softening of
its woody structure, and it falls by its
own weight, a mass of ruins. The native
villages are generally built around one of
these immense trees, and unde its far
spreading branches, which form an agree
able shelter from the sun, is the kotla, or
place Of assemblage, where all the public
business of the tribe is transacted The
circuit described by the extremities of
the lowermost range of branches is
fenced around, so hat none but those
priviledged to attend these meetings can
intrude. In thinly populated districts of
southern and central Africa, where lions,
leopards and hyneas abound, the natives
live in huts like gigantic beehives. firmly
fixed among the large branches of the
tree. On the approach of night they as
cend to their huts by means of rude
ladders, while the lions roar about their
camp fires until the approach of day
drives them to their lairs.
AS many as thirty families have been
found to occupy a single tree. In many
instances, natives who till the ground at
any great distance from their tribe, build
these huts for nightly accommodation.
In travelling through the country one
frequently sees these trees alive with ba-
boons and other kinds of the monkey
tribe, busy in collecting the fruit and in
dulging in ceaseless gambols and chat
ter; for this reason it is commonly called
the monkey bread tree. When the tree
is not occupied as a h~abitation, the hol-
low trunk is used by the natives as a
sepulcher for executed criminals-the
law of the people denying them the right
of burial-inside OF which the bodies dry
up and to a great extent resemble mum
mics. To a European this tree is a mar
vel; coming across one inhabited by
monkeys, it is extremely dangerous to
shoot any unless one is with a party, for,
if any are wounded, the whole colony
take up the battle, and more than nee
i found that a retreat in short order was
necessary.-American Agriculturist.