Note 73 — THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF ANDREW BATTELL OF LEIGH IN ESSEX, SENT BY THE PORTUGALS PRISONER TO ANGOLA, WHO LIVED THERE, AND IN THE ADJOINING REGIONS, NEAR EIGHTEEN YEARS.

The baobab is indifferently called by Battell alicunde, licondo, elicondi, olicandi, or alicunde, all of which are corruptions of nkondo, by which name the tree is known in Congo. The Portuguese know this characteristic tree of the coast-land and the interior as imbondeiro (from mbondo in Kimbundu). Its inner bark yields a fibre known as licomte, is made into coarse cloth, and is also exported to Europe to be converted into paper. The wood is very light. The pulp of the fruit is refreshing, and was formerly esteemed as a remedy against fever and dysentery. The seeds are eaten. The shell (macua) is used to hold water (hence the popular name of Calabash tree). Ficalho distinguishes three species, viz., Adansonia digitata, Linn., the fruit of which is longish; A. subglobosa, bearing a bell-shaped fruit; A. lageniformis, yielding a fruit shaped like a cucumber (see Monteiro, Angola, vol. i, p. 78; Ficalho, Plantas uteis, p. 100).