1869.] The Malay Archij^elaf/o. 171 



for his valuable contribution to our hitherto imperfect knowledge 

 of the Malay Archipelago, and to the publisher, for the admii-able 

 illustrations, many of them from photographs, with which the 

 work is enriched. 



His account of some of the natural productions of the Archi- 

 pelago is interesting ; indeed, so far as those are concerned whose 

 intrinsic value in civilized life is the greatest, such as sugar, with 

 its manufacturing processes,* nutmeg and mace,t camphor, | his 

 information is full and valuable. His description of the various 

 fruits and trees is also exceedingly interesting ; and the reader is 

 enabled to appreciate the beauty of the latter through the well- 

 executed plates already referred to. A comparison of his account 

 of the curious fruit of the Durian {Durio Zibethinus) § with that 

 of Mr. Wallace || illustrates in an amusing manner the diversity 

 of human tastes ; and, as the fruit has scarcely ever been mentioned 

 in England, it may be briefly noticed here. The " Durian " is a 

 large spherical fruit, covered with sharply-pointed tubercles and 

 a hard shell. Within, it is divided into several parts, and (accord- 

 ing to Bickmore) it contains "a pale yellow substance of the 

 consistency of thick cream, and having an odour of putrid animal 

 matter, so strong that a single fruit is enough to infect the air of 

 a whole house." The taste is described as similar to " fi-esh cream 

 and filberts," but the odour was such as to repel the American 

 traveller. Om- own countryman describes the fruit in similar 

 terms, and says "it smells like rotten onions;" but then bursting 

 into a song in praise of its taste, which, he says, " resembles custard 

 highly flavoui-ed with almonds," but " intermingled with wafts of 

 flavour that call to mind cream cheese, onion sauce, brown sherry, 

 and other incongruities " (!) he tells us that he was a confirmed 

 Durian eater, and, although Europeans cannot bear the fruit, and 

 Mr. Wallace possessed his taste only in common with the savages 

 amongst whom he lived so long, he considers it would be " worth 

 a voyage to the East to experience the new sensation of eating it." 

 Verily there is no accounting for tastes, and we should not be 

 surprised if our author, or some one endowed with similar pro- 

 chvities, were to tell us that he considers it worth while endmin fl- 

 ail the hardships of a Eussian winter to taste fresh ca\iare in 

 Astrachan ! 



But Mr. Wallace has also some pecuhar metaphysical theories 

 concerning this strange fruit, for it furnishes him with evidence 

 against the argument from design. 



" The Durian is, however, sometimes dangerous. When the fruit 

 begins to ripen it falls daily and almost hourly, and accidents not 



* Bickmore, pp. G8 to 70. f Pp- 222-3. % P. 433. § P 91 



II Wallace, vol. i., p. 118. 



