320 The Gardens of the Sun. [ch. xv. 



as a child's head, and unless its segments be very care- 

 fully divided when serving, the copious grape-like juice 

 which escapes will almost swamp any ordinary dessert- 

 dish, and the best sorts have quite a muscatelle-like 

 flavour; and in addition to its other good qualities it 

 may, like the orange, be kept for a considerable time 

 without injury — so long, indeed, that pomoloes are fre- 

 quently brought home to England from the Chinese ports 

 in excellent condition. Two sorts of custard apples are 

 ■commonly met with in Eastern gardens, but neither these 

 nor the apricot-like pulp of the ubiquitous papaw are 

 much esteemed where far better fruits are plentiful. The 

 same remark applies to the " santoel " fruit, which ex- 

 ternally resembles a wizened yellow-fleshed American 

 peach, but it contains four stones surrounded by white 

 sub-acid granular pulp, which clings to the stone as in 

 mangosteen or rambutan. The tamarind is naturalised 

 near villages and houses in many of the Eastern islands, 

 its acid pulp being used in cookery, and by pouring boil- 

 ing water over the pulp, and adding a squeeze of lime 

 juice and a little sugar, a most refreshing fever-drink 

 may be made. 



Of palms the cocoanut is most plentiful, and of course 

 the most generally useful. Its top, or heart, may be used 

 as a delicious vegetable equal to asparagus, and the 

 scraped albumen yields the milk so essential to blend or 

 soften a well-made curry. The colourless water in the 

 fresh young nuts is peculiarly valuable and grateful as a 

 beverage, preferable where drinking water is in anyway 

 questionable ; cocoa-nut oil being, moreover, one of the 

 most valuable of Eastern palm products. The fruit of 

 the " pinang," or betel-nut palm is as essential to the 

 Malay races as tobacco to our own, and even the fruit of 

 the nipa, or "thatch" palm may be eaten. The astrin- 



