i$2 OSBECK'S VOYAGE. 



they communicate to each other by means of 

 Pinang lafcivious med cines, their antidotes, 

 and the leaves of Cheat goena> together with 

 other poifons. Old Pinang-nuts, made round 

 and polimed, put during one night into water 

 in which fome fnake-tree wood has been foak- 

 ed before, are fometimes given for Piedra del 

 Puerco °, as Rumph. fays. 



Birds nefts p are a fcarce and dear difli : 

 they look like little difnes, or like half the 

 rind of a lemon ; the bed are white and clear, 

 almoft like ifinglafs. They grow tough like a 



Piedra del puerco is a concretion found in the cyjiis fellea, 

 or gall-bladder of the Malacca Porcupine, which, when foak- 

 td in water for fome hours, impregnates it with a confider- 

 able biuernefs ; although the Piedra del puerco lofes fcarce^- 

 ly a grain of its weight. This infufion is ufed in India as 

 a cordial in malignant putrid fevers, and in the jaundice. 

 The high price of tnefe Piedras del puerco, which fome- 

 times amounts to fifty pounds fterling apiece, has caufcd 

 that they are frequently counterfeited and adulterated. See 

 Ka-mpfer's Amcen. Exot. p. 395. F. 



P Nidus avis is the name they bear in our apothecaries 

 fhops. Yenova Yenika, vulgo Yens. Nidus halcyonum, 

 vulgo nidus avium, pro obfoniis ad coquinas expetitus. 

 Nidos hos rupibus oceani orientalis affixos parant hi) undines 

 marinse, domefticis multo majores ex holothuriis mari inna- 

 tantibus matcriam decerpentes. Kemp/. Am. p. 853. 



piece 



