I have met with three, but
they are dry, tough, and worthless as game.
We slept in the desert about five miles from Berber, and on the
following day, after a scorching march of about twenty miles, we
arrived at the junction of the Atbara river with the Nile.
Throughout the route the barren sand stretched to the horizon on
the left, while on the right, within a mile of the Nile, the soil
was sufficiently rich to support a certain amount of
vegetation--chiefly dwarf mimosas and the Asclepias gigantea. The
latter I had frequently seen in Ceylon, where it is used
medicinally by the native doctors; but here it was ignored,
except for the produce of a beautiful silky down which is used
for stuffing cushions and pillows. This vegetable silk is
contained in a soft pod or bladder about the size of an orange.
Both the leaves and the stem of this plant emit a highly
poisonous milk, that exudes from the bark when cut or bruised;
the least drop of this will cause total blindness, if in contact
with the eye. I have seen several instances of acute ophthalmia
that have terminated in loss of sight from the accidental rubbing
of the eye with the hand when engaged in cutting firewood from
the asclepias. The wood is extremely light, and is frequently
tied into fagots and used by the Arabs as a support while
swimming, in lieu of cork.
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