420 JAMAICA. 



is like a green callbafh; only it has a circular black line round it^ 

 and two or three warts or little knobs. The infide of the (hell is 

 full of white, flattifh beans, inclofed in a white membranous lub- 

 ftance ; and, when thoroughly ripe, the fruit turns of a brownifli 

 cafl^, like a ripe calabafli. The beans or nuts are then of a lightifh 

 brown colour, covered with a thin, hard crufl:, in which is a 

 whltifh kernel full of oil, and exceflively bitter. The nuts are ge- 

 nerally ten or twelve in a fliell, clofe and comprefled ; fo that, 

 after being taken out, they cannot be replaced. He fays, the Spa- 

 niards call it ^r/7/^; and the Negroes, that he employed to gather 

 it, called it fabo. It feems to be a fpecies of the fevillea foliis 

 cordath angulatls, Linnsei, Sp. PI. Angl. " antidote cocoon of 

 *' Jamaica ;" whofe kernels yield a great deal of oil, of a bitter 

 tafte, and uled here for burning. The Negroes infufe thefe kernels, 

 when dried and fcraped into a powder, in rum, to relieve pains in 

 the flomach. They alfo efteem them antidotes to poifon. But 

 the pod feldom contains above three, or at mod four, feeds ; and 

 therefore it cannot be the fam.e as Barham's. Browne mentions 

 very imperfe6l]y, p. 373, a plant which he faw growing, on the 

 windward part of Montferrat, at the lide of Kaby's Gully; which 

 bore white bloflbms, fucceeded by many large apples, containing a 

 number of large comprefled feeds, difperfed in the pulp of the fruit ; 

 which probably is the fame as that defcribed by Baiham. 



But to return. The Negroes wear the teeth of wild cats, and 

 eat their flefh, as a charm for long life; for they hold the vulgar 

 opinion, that a cat has nine lives. Thus, by aflimilation of the 

 cat's flefli and juices into their own, they imagine they can enfure 

 longevity, and a power of fuftaining great fatigues. Many a poor 

 grimalkin has fallen a viflim to this ftrange notion. Bits of red 

 rag, cats teeth, parrots feathers, egg-fhells, and fifh-bones, are fre- 

 quently ftuck up at the doors of their houfes when they go from 

 home leaving any thing of value within (ibmetimes they hang 

 them on fruit-trees, and place them in corn-fields), to deter thieves. 

 Upon converfing with feme of the Creoles upon this cuftom, they 

 laughed at the liippofed virtue of the charm, and ftid they prac- 

 tifed it only to frighten away the falt-water Negroes, of whofe de- 

 predations they are moft apprehenfive. Their funerals are the very 



reverfe 



