IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
362 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVEL .IN TIIE EAST,
it was of these leaves that Adam and Eve made themselves
girdles to cover their nakedness.
There are also many other trees and wonderful fruits there 0
which we never see in these parts, such as the Nargil. Now
the Nargil is the Indian Nut. Its tree has a most delicate
bark, and very handsome leaves like those of the date-palm.
Of these they make baskets and corn measures ; they use
the wood for joists and rafters in roofing houses ; of the
husk or rind they make cordage ; of the nutshell cups and
goblets. They make also from the shell spoons which are
antidotes to poison. Inside the shell there is a pulp of some
two fingers thick, which is excellent eating, and tastes al-.
most like almonds. It burns also, and both oil and sugar
can be made from it. Inside of this there is a liquor which
bubbles like new milk and turns to an excellent wine.'
They have also another tree called Amburan,2 having a
fruit of excellent fragrance and flavour, somewhat like a
peach.
There is again another wonderful tree called Chakebaruhe,3
as big as an oak. Its fruit is produced from the trunk and
not from the branches, and is something marvellous to see,
those that have better eyes and better judgment than myself" (p. 1515). And Rheede : " Transversim secti in carne nota magis fusca seu rufa, velut signo crucis interstincti, ac punctulis hinc inde nigricantibus conspersi." (Hortus Malabaricus, i, 19.)
He apparently confounds the coconut milk with the toddy, which is the sap of the tree drawn and fermented; a mistake which later travellers have made.
2 The Mango (Am or Amba). I do not know how the word Amburanus which he uses is formed. There is a tree and fruit in Malabar with a considerable resemblance to the mango (perhaps a wild Mango) called Ambalcum (Rheede Hortus Malabar., i, 91).
3 The Jack ; a good account of it. Ciake Baruhe is the Shaki Barki of Ibn Batuta; concerning whicf,. see Jordanus, p. 13. P. Vincenzo Maria also calls the best kind of Jack Giacha Barca (Viag., p. 355). Baruhe however comes nearer to Waracha, which Knox states to be one Singalese name of the Jack (Ed. 1691, p. 14). Sultan Baber compares the Jack-fruit to a haggis. "You would say," quoth he, "that the tree was hung all round with haggises !" (p. 325).
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