in a Pan, and then is beaten in a Mortar to unhusk it. It will boyl
like Rice but swell far more; the tast not bad but very dry, and
accounted wholsome; the fashion flattish, the colour yellow and
very lovely to the Eye. It ripens in four months, some sorts of it
in three. There are also divers other sorts, which grow on dry
Land (as the former) and ripen with the Rain.
somewhat like Vetches, growing in a Cod.
boyled and eaten as Rice. It has an operation pretty strange, which
is, that when it is new it will make them that eat it like drunk,
sick and spue; and this only when it is sown in some Grounds, for
in all it will not have this effect: and being old, none will have it.
Minere, a small seed. Boumas, we call them Garavances.
Tolla,

1681.

As Moung, a Corn Moung. Omb, a small seed, Omb.

a seed used to make Oyl, with which they anoint themselves; and sometimes they will parch it and eat it with Jaggory, a kind of brown Sugar. And thus much of their Corn.

[Chap. IV

1681.

Great variety of Fruits, and delicious.

The best
Fruits,

wherever they
grow, reserved
for the King.
[p. 13.]

Betel-Nuts.

The Trees.
The Fruit.

O

F Fruits here

CHAP. IV.

Of their Fruits, and Trees.

realf they did

are great plenty and variety, and far more might be if they did esteem or nourish them. Pleasant Fruits to eat ripe they care not at all to do, They look only after those that may fill the Belly, and satisfie their hunger when their Corn is spent, or to make it go the further. These onely they plant, the other Fruits of Pleasure plant themselves, the seeds of the ripe Fruits shedding and falling on the ground naturally spring up again. They have all Fruits that grow in India. Most sorts of these delicious Fruits they gather before they be ripe, and boyl them to make Carrees, to use the Portuguez word, that is somewhat to eat with and relish their Rice. But wheresoever there is any Fruit better than ordinary, the Ponudecars, or Officers of the Countrey, will tie a string about the Tree in the Kings Name with three knots on the end thereof, and then no man, not the Owner himself, dares presume under pain of some great punishment, if not death, to touch them. And when they are ripe, they are wrapped in white cloth, and carried to him who is Governour of that Countrey wherein they grow: and if they be without any defect or blemish, then being wrapped up again in white cloth, he presents them to the King. But the owner in whose Ground they grow is paid nothing at all for them: it is well if he be not compelled to carry them himself into the bargain unto the King, be it never so far. These are Reasons why the People regard not to plant more than just to keep them alive.

But to specifie some of the chief of the Fruits in request among them. I begin with their Betel-Nuts, the Trees that bear them grow only on the South and West sides of this Island.

They do not grow wild, they are only in their Towns, and there like unto Woods, without any inclosures to distinguish one mans Trees from anothers; but by marks of great Trees, Hummacks or Rocks each man knows his own. They plant them not, but the Nuts being ripe fall down in the grass and so grow up to Trees. They are very streight and tall, few bigger than the calf of a mans Leg. The Nuts grow in bunches at the top, and being ripe look red and very lovely like a pleasing Fruit. When they gather them, they lay

them in heaps until the shell be somewhat rotted, and then dry them in the Sun, and afterwards shell them with a sharp stick one and one at a time. These Trees will yield some 500, some a 1000,

some 1500 Nuts, and some but three or four hundred.

They bear

but once in the Year generally, but commonly there are green Nuts enough to eat all the Year long. The leaves of it are somewhat

1681.

like those of a Coker-Nut Tree, they are five or six foot long, and The Leaves. have other lesser leaves growing out of the sides of them, like the feathers on each side of a quill. The Chingulays call the large leaves the boughs, and the leaves on the sides, the leaves. They fall off every Year, and the skin upon which they grow, with them. These skins grow upon the body of the Tree, and the leaves grow The Skins, out on them. They also clap about the buds or blossoms which and their use. bear the Nuts, and as the buds swell, so this skin-cover gives way to them, till at length it falls quite off with the great leaf on it. It is somewhat like unto Leather, and of great use unto the Countrey People. It serves them instead of Basons to eat their Rice in, and when they go a Journey to tie up their Provisions: For in these skins or leaves they can tie up any liquid substance as Oyl or water, doubling it in the middle, and rowling in the two sides, almost like a purse. For bigness they are according to the Trees, some bigger, some less, ordinarily they are about two foot length, and a foot and an half in breadth. In this Countrey are no Inns to go to, and therefore their manner when they Travel is, to carry ready dressed what provisions they can, which they make up in these leaves. The Trees within have onely a kind of pith, and will split from one end to the other, the Wood is hard and very strong; they use it for Laths The Wood. for their Houses, and also for Rails for their Hedges, which are

only stakes struck in the ground, and rails tyed along with rattans,

or other withs growing in the Woods.

Money is not very plentiful The profit the

in this Land, but by means of these Nuts, which is a great Com- Fruit yields.

modity to carry to the Coasts of Cormandel, they furnish themselves

with all things they want. The common price of Nuts, when there

was a Trade, as there was when I came first on this Land, is 20000 [p. 14.]
for one Doller; but now they ly and grow, or rot on the ground
under the Trees. Some of these Nuts do differ much from others
in their operation, having this effect, that they will make people
drunk and giddy-headed, and give them some stools, if they eat
them green.

1681.

Jacks.

Jombo.

Other Fruits found in the Woods.

There is another Fruit, which we call Jacks; the Inhabitants when they are young call them Polos, before they be full ripe Cose; and when ripe, Warracha or Vellas; But with this difference, the Warracha is hard, but the Vellas as soft as pap, both looking alike to the eye no difference; but they are distinct Trees. These are a great

They grow

help to the People, and a great part of their Food.
upon a large Tree, the Fruit is as big as a good Peck loaf, the out-
side prickly like an Hedg-hog, and of a greenish colour; there are in
them Seeds or Kernels, or Eggs as the Chingulayes call them, which
lie dispersed in the Fruit like Seeds in a Cucumber. They usually
gather them before they be full ripe, boreing an hole in them, and
feeling of the Kernel, they know if they be ripe enough for their
purpose. Then being cut in pieces they boil them, and eat to save
Rice and fill their Bellies; they eat them as we would do Turnips or
Cabbage, and tast and smell much like the latter: one may suffice
six or seven men. When they are ripe they are sweet and good
to eat raw. The Kernels do very much resemble Chesnuts both in
colour and tast, and are almost as good: the poor people will boyl
them or roast them in the embers, there being usually a good heap
of them lying in a corner by the fire side; and when they go a
Journey, they will put them in a bag for their Provisions by the
way. One Jack may contain three pints or two quarts of these
seeds or kernels. When they cut these Jacks, there comes run-
ning out a white thick substance like tar, and will stick just like
Bird-lime, which the Boyes make use of to catch Birds, which they
call Cola, or bloud of the Cos. Some will mix this with the flower
of Rice, and it will eat like Eggs.

Another Fruit there is which I never saw in any other Parts of India, they call it Jombo. In tast it is like to an Apple, full of Juice, and pleasant to the Palate, and not unwholsom to the Body, and to the Eye no Fruit more amiable, being white, and delicately coloured with red, as if it were painted.

Also in the Wild Woods are several sorts of pretty Fruits, as Murros, round in shape, and as big as a Cherry, and sweet to the tast; Dongs, nearest like a black Cherry. Ambelo's like to Barberries. Carolla cabella, Cabela pooke, and Polla's, these are like to little Plums, and very well tasted. Paragidde, like to our

Pears, and many more such like Fruits.