.336 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I676. 



jtons, spun and unspun; indigo, saltpetre, spices, cardamom, ginger, and 

 pepper ; diamonds, rubies, pearls, bezoar, musk, sugar; besides some drugs, thafe 

 indeed are found at Surat, but are brought thither for sale from other countries, 

 as sal ammoniac, borax, gum-lac, saffron, cummin, myrrh, frankincense, opium, 

 lignum aloes, liquorice, cassia, coffee. To all which he has annexed an account 

 of the cheats used in divers of these commodities, especially in the silks, cloths, 

 cottons, indigo. 



That it is certain that the nut-meg tree is not planted, but the fruit of it sown 

 by birds, said to swallow the nutmegs whole, and voiding them whole without 

 digestion, covered with a viscous matter : whereupon they take root and grow 

 up to a tree. Again, that the birds of Paradise eating this fruit, are intoxi- 

 cated with it, and fall down dead on the place; whereupon emmets come and 

 eat off their legs, and other parts. 



Of pearls he has this remarkable observation, viz. that he had one pearl-oyster 

 in his hand, that had ten pearls in it, though of different sizes; being, in his 

 opinion, bred in oysters, as eggs are in the belly of fowls. 



That musk, when it is first drawn out of a certain bag of the musk-deer, is 

 like blood coagulated ; that most of it comes out of the kingdom of Boutan, 

 between 56 and 60 degrees northern latitude; but that Cochin-China also and 

 Tunquin furnish some quantity. Of the people of this kingdom he relates, that 

 they have had the use of muskets, cannon and powder for several ages; they 

 report that they now have pieces of cannon, on which are found cyphers, or 

 letters, demonstrating them to be above 500 years old. This is that very king- 

 dom, (says our author,) through which the ambassadors of Muscovy passed, 

 anno 1659, into China, taking their road all along the Great Tartary on the 

 north of Boutan: which ambassadors, if they had complied with the customs 

 and ceremonies of China, we might probably have at this day a beaten road by 

 land from Muscovy to China, by the north of Tartaria Magna, and much more 

 knowledge of the kingdom of Boutan ; and of some other countries, of which we 

 hardly know the names : a thing that might have proved a great advantage to ail 

 Europe. 



That Bezoar is found among the contents within the stomach of certain 

 goats, that feed on a plant, the name of which the author says he has forgotten. 

 This plant is said to thrust out certain buttons, about which and the extremities 

 of the branches, eaten by these goats, the bezoar is formed in their belly. It is 

 added, that the bezoar takes its form according to that of the buttons and the 

 ends of the branches. The goat that breeds these stones, is, by his description^ 

 a very fine and tall creature, having hair as fine as silk. * 



* The Bezoar is a calculus concretion formed in one of the stomachs, (for they have several 

 stomachs,) of certain species of antelope. 



