Tlie Ixike of Arendsee. 569 



There are a few rocky cliffs overhanging the sea where many- 

 thousands of the swallows have fixed their little nests, which, 

 unfortunately for the poor birds, are thought a delicacy. 

 To obtain them, bamboo scaffoldings are suspended from 

 the cliffs, but no caution can prevent the numerous accidents 

 which take place in the course of every harvest. The nests, 

 of which there are always two together, one above the other, 

 are scraped off without any consideration to what may be in 

 them. Thus a great many unfledged young perish, which, 

 if boiled, taste exactly like the nests. The collecting and 

 cleaning of the latter is performed within fourteen or twenty 

 days, whereupon all our guests leave us. The harvest is first 

 brought to Solo, because the emperor of Solo, our most 

 powerful vassal in Java, receives a certain proportion of the 

 value. The nests which are collected here belong to the 

 grey sort, the white one being found on the South coast of 

 Borneo. With reference to the constituent principles of 

 these nests, as well as to the circumstance, that, though they 

 are no doubt from the animal kingdom, they are very little 

 subject to putrefaction, the philosophers are not yet agreed. 

 In my opinion, the decomposition is arrested by the great 

 quantity of salt-petre on the surface of the rocks where the 

 swallows build, as well as by the sea-salt and spray with 

 which the nests are impregnated during their construction. 

 I have observed that different caverns which were formerly 

 constantly dripping with dissolved salt-petre, and where a 

 few of these birds used to build, have been forsaken by the 

 latter after salt-petre had ceased to form there, and that the 

 nests are fast crumbling off. This may also be the reason 

 why these birds construct their nests in such vast numbers 

 on a few particular cliffs, though there be numbers at hand, 

 quite similar to the former, but destitute of salt-petre. It is 

 not true, though many travellers have stated it to be the 

 case, that shooting in this neighbourhood is strictly forbidden, 

 for I use my gun very frequently without finding any oppo- 

 sition on the part of the authorities. But there exists a law 

 that no Chinese should approach Karambolang within six 

 paals (3 leagues) and the ferrymen near the mouth of the 

 river Lara, which joins the sea at this place, are strictly pro- 

 hibited to ferry over individuals belonging to that nation. 

 In the direction of the Banjumaas the sentinels of the Prad- 

 juriets have also the strictest orders not to let any Chinese 

 pass. This is, as far as I know, the only precaution taken 

 with reference to insuring the harvest of the nests." — Id. 



Lake of Arendsee. — Near Arendsee, in the circle of Mag- 

 deburg, there is a remarkable lake of the considerable 

 extent of about a German square mile, or about eighteen 



