When discussing the milk tree symbolism in the context of the girls' puberty ritual, informants tend to stress the harmonizing, cohesive aspects of the milk tree symbolism. They also stress the aspect of dependence.The child depends on its mother for nutriment; similarly, say the Ndembu, the tribesman drink from the breasts of tribal custom. Thus nourishment and learning are equated in the meaning content of the milk tree. I have often heard the milk tree compared to "Going to school"; the child is said to swallow instruction as a baby swallows milk and Kapudyi, the thin cassava gruel Ndembu liken to milk.