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Antiqua
Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung.
Amid the great number of curious phenomena which have
presented themselves to me in the course of my travels, there
are few which have so powerfully affected my imagination as
the aspect of the cow-tree. On the barren flank of a rock
grows a tree, with coriaceous and dry leaves; its large woody
roots can scarcely penetrate into the stone; for several months
in the year not a single shower moistens its foliage; its
branches appear dead and dried; but when the trunk is
pierced, there flows from it a sweet nourishing milk. It is at
the rising of the sun that this vegetable fountain is most
abundant; the blacks and natives are then seen hastening from
all quarters, furnished with large bowls to receive the milk,
which grows yellow, and thickens at its surface; some empty
their bowls near the tree itself, others carry the juice home to
their children. We seem to behold the family of a shepherd
who distributes the milk of his flock.