1770- ROUND THE WORLD. 321 



With respect to drink, Nature has not been quite 

 so liberal to the inhabitants of Java, as to some whom 

 she has placed in the less fruitful regions of the north. 

 The native Javanese, and most of the other Indians 

 who inhabit this island, are indeed Mahometans, and 

 therefore have no reason to regret the want of wine : 

 but, as if the prohibition of their law respected only 

 the manner of becoming drunk, and not drunkenness 

 itself, they chew opium, to the total subversion, not 

 only of their understanding, but their health. 



The arrack that is made here, is too well known 

 to need a description : besides which, the palm yields 

 a wine of the same kind with that which has already 

 been described in the account of the island of Savu ; 

 it is procured from the same tree, in the same man- 

 ner, and is sold in three states. The first, in which 

 it is called Tuac manise, differs little from that in 

 which it comes from the tree ; yet even this has re- 

 ceived some preparation altogether unknown to us, 

 in consequence of which it will keep eight-and-forty 

 hours, though otherwise it would spoil in twelve : in 

 this state it has an agreeable sweetness, and will not 

 intoxicate. In the other two states it has undergone 

 a fermentation, and received an infusion of certain 

 herbs and roots, by which it looses its sweetness, and 

 acquires a taste very austere and disagreeable. In 

 one of these states it is called Tuac eras, and in the 

 other Tuac cuning, but the specific difference I do 

 not know ; in both, however, it intoxicates very 

 powerfully. A liquor called Tuac is also made from 

 the cocoa-nut tree, but this is used chiefly to put 

 into the arrack, for in that which is good it is an essen- 

 tial ingredient. 



VOL. II. 



