Note 61 — Chapter VII

“The Gumara here flows between high rocks, which consist of porphyry and trachyte, in which calcareous tufa is found embedded. Its banks are adorned with tropical vegetation, and the place derives its characteristic features especially from the wild Phœnix with its delicate foliage and the colossal Musa Ensete ornamentalis with carmine leaf-panicles, which is called guma-guma by the natives to distinguish it from the edible Musa Ensete. In many places the Gumara is deep and full of fish; innumerable wild ducks and geese, scopus umbretta, etc., enliven the surface of the water, while bright-hued butterflies, the charming Danais and equitidæ with their brilliant play of colour, mingled with tiny metallic-tinted nectariniæ (affinis metallica), flit around the fragrant Dodonæa viscosa and the brilliant blossoms of the Tsana-tree” (“Mittheilungen der Afrikanischen Gesellschaft in Deutschland,” vol. iii. 1881, pp. 23, 24). Phœnix is the name given to a family of pinnate palms, of which the Egyptian Phœnix dactylifera, the finger-date, is an example. Ensete is the Abyssinian name of a thick-stemmed, large-leafed banana, which is grown in gardens as an ornamental plant. The thick flower-stalk is used as an article of food by the natives, but the fruit, being small and dry, is useless. In spite of these attractions, Wansage, (see p. 63) according to Stecker, would hardly be a suitable health-resort for European invalids. He wrote, “By night an infernal din prevails, which, mingled with the singing of women and clapping of hands, forms the characteristic music of the Baths. The bull-frogs that live in the Gumara supply a harmonious accompaniment, which, with the noise kept up by the donkeys and beasts of burden, does not cease till long after midnight” (Ib.).