5 8 Voyage of the Novara. 



year. Of tlie thirteen men who formed the crew of the 

 barque, ten were laid up with fever. The disorderly habits 

 of life, however, of foreign visitors are much more to blame 

 for these frequent attacks of disease than the unhealthiness of 

 the climate. Constantly they are guilty of excesses in diet 

 and general negligence of health, bathing during the utmost 

 heat of the day without any covering to the head, exposing 

 themselves to the burning rays of the noonday sun, drinking 

 for tlie most part nothing but the fluid contents of the unripe 

 cocoa-nut, eating quantities of juicy fruits, the constant use of 

 which acts injuriously on the systems of strangers, and sleep- 

 ing on the damp soil under the open air, exposed to all the 

 noxious influences of the atmosphere of a tropical forest with- 

 out the slightest shelter. Bing-Hong showed us the dried 

 edible nests of the Hirundo esculenta (in Malay Salang^ in 

 Nicobar Ilegai), and presented us with a small packet of about 

 thirty nests. When properly dried, seventy-two of these 

 tiny nests weigh one catty, or lq;lb., and they are sold at 

 two rupees (4^.) for three of the inferior sort. The best 

 quality is far more expensive. We caused some of these 

 Chinese dainties to be prepared exactly as prescribed by 

 Bing-Hong, that is to say, they were boiled for one hour in 

 hot water, but we found the gelatinous mass quite tasteless, 

 and, in fact, resembling dissolved gum. The swallow which 

 constructs these edible nests does not however seem to be a 

 regular visitant of the Nicobar Islands, and the profits on this 

 article of commerce, which is of such importance in Java and 



