EDIBLE SWALLOW NESTS. 



done regularly every four months; and this forms the 

 harvest of the proprietors of these rocks. 



The business of taking them down from the rocky 

 ledges on which they are placed, is performed by men 

 who have been accustomed from their youth to climb 

 amongst these dangerous places. They construct ladders 

 of reeds and bamboos, by which they are enabled to 

 ascend to the holes; but if the caverns are too deep 

 they employ ship-ropes. When they have got to the 

 bottom of a cavern they place bamboos, with notches in 

 them, against the wall, if these be sufficiently long to 

 reach the nests, but if not they stand on the ladders, 

 and pull the nests down with poles of bamboo made for 

 that purpose. This employment, which is very danger- 

 our, sacrifices the lives of a great many men, and par- 

 ticularly of thieves, while attempting to rob the caverns 

 at improper seasons. For this reason small watch-houses 

 are everywhere built in the neighbourhood. 



The mountaineers, who are the persons chiefly accus- 

 tomed to this employment, never undertake their labour 

 till they have slaughtered a buffalo, as a propitiatory 

 sacrifice, which is the usual preparation made by the 

 Javanese for all their undertakings. On such occasions 

 they mutter over a few prayers, anoint themselves with 

 aromatic oils, and fumigate the holes with sweet-smelling 

 substances, which they conceive to be charms against 

 accident. 



At the chief of these caverns, in the island of Java, 

 a protecting female deity is worshipped, under the name 

 of Princess of the Southern Sea. A small hut, with a 

 covered sleeping-place, is there appropriated for her, 

 together with various elegant articles of dress, which 

 none under the rank of a princess can wear; and every 

 Friday when the nests are taken down incense is conti- 

 nually burnt, and the body and clothes of every one 

 who intends to ascend the rocks must be exposed to it. 

 To afford them light in the cavern, they use torches 

 made of the resinous gum of a large tree. 



