250 EDIBLE SWALLOW NESTS. 



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 pro- 

 tecting 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 prin- 

 cess can wear ; and every Friday when the nests are taken 

 down, incense is continually burned, 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. 



The collecting of these nests continues no longer than a 

 month, and, as already mentioned, may be repeated three 

 times in the year. Some believe that it may be done a fourth 

 time; but this is not probable, as all experienced people 

 brought up to this employment confidently assert, that a nest, 

 as long as it remains entire, is continually enlarged by the 

 bird, or made thicker, until it is entirely deserted by her, when 

 it becomes dry or hairy in the inside. When the nests have 

 been collected, no further trouble is necessary than to dry and 

 clean them ; after which they are put in baskets, and sold to 

 the Chinese. The price of them depends on their whiteness 

 and fineness. Those of the best sort are exceedingly scarce. 

 They are sold at the rate of from eight to fourteen hundred 

 rix-dollars per one hundred and twenty-five pounds, which 

 amounts in our money to the sum of from thirty to forty-two 

 shillings per pound. This high price, and the great avarice of 

 the Chinese, give rise to much dishonesty and thieving. The 

 two places above mentioned were sold by auction by the Dutch 

 East India Company to the highest bidder, who received for 

 them above twenty thousand pounds more than they expected, 

 which proves the value and quantity of these singular produc- 

 tions. About two thousand five hundred pounds' weight of 

 these nests are collected every year in the island of Java, 

 which, at an average of the above prices, amounts to about 

 five thousand pounds a year. , 



