MISCELLANEOUS FRUITS 423 



the spines arch a little; these are the sutures of the carpels, and 

 show where the fruit may be divided with a heavy knife and a strong 

 hand. The five cells are satiny white within, and are each filled 

 with an oval mass of cream-colored pulp, imbedded in which are two 

 or three seeds about the size of chestnuts. This pulp is the eatable 

 part, and its consistence and flavor are indescribable. A rich butter- 

 like custard highly flavored with almonds gives the best general idea 

 of it, but intermingled with it come wafts of flavor that call to mind 

 cream-cheese, onion-sauce, brown sherry, and other incongruities. 

 Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing 

 else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid, 

 nor sweet, nor juicy, yet one feels the want of none of these qualities, 

 for it is perfect as it is. In fact to eat Durians is a new sensation, 

 worth a voyage to the East to experience. 



"When the fruit is ripe it falls of itself, and the only way to eat 

 Durians in perfection is to get them as they fall ; and the smell is then 

 less overpowering. When unripe, it makes a very good vegetable if 

 cooked, and it is also eaten by the Dyaks raw. In a good season 

 large quantities are preserved salted, in jars and bamboos, and kept 

 the year round, when it acquires a most disgusting odor to Europeans 

 but the Dyaks appreciate it highly as a relish with their rice. There 

 are in the forest two varieties of wild Durians with much smaller 

 fruits, one of them orange-colored inside; and these are probably 

 the origin of the large and fine Durians, which are never found wild. 

 It would not, perhaps, be correct to say that the Durian is the best 

 of all fruits, because it cannot supply the place of the subacid, juicy 

 kinds, such as the orange, grape, mango, and mangosteen, whose 

 refreshing and cooling qualities are so wholesome and grateful ; but 

 as producing a food of the most exquisite flavor it is unsurpassed. If 

 I had to fix on two only, as representing the perfection of the two 

 classes, I should certainly choose the Durian and the Orange as the 

 king and queen of fruits. 



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

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

 infrequently happen to persons walking or working under the trees. 

 When a Durian strikes a man in its fall, it produces a dreadful wound, 

 the strong spines tearing open the flesh, while the blow itself is very 

 heavy ; but from this very circumstance death rarely ensues, the 

 copious effusion of blood preventing the inflammation which might 

 otherwise take place. A Dyak chief informed me that he had been 

 struck down by a Durian falling on his head, which he thought would 

 certainly have caused his death, yet he recovered in a very short time.'* 



The area in which the durian is indigenous has not been 

 determined with certainty. The species is generally believed 



