318 TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



to traverse, and very bad ground on which to attack dangerous 

 game. 



The day of our arrival we did nothing ; but set out bright and 

 early the following morning with a Malay guide who knew the 

 locality well. We went to look the ground over, and if possible 

 find wild cattle. 



For an hour, our guide led us along a muddy path, through 

 very thick jungle, and finally we halted at a place where there 

 were a number of durian trees, and a party of Malays gathering 

 the ripe fruit as fast as it fell. Being an animal of largely frugiv- 

 orous habits, I have marked that day with a white stone as being 

 the one on which I ate my first durian. 



It is said that most Europeans have to learn to like this cele- 

 brated fruit. Ye gods! Learn to sip nectar from a blushing- 

 maiden's lips, if you must, but if you are fond of fruit at all, you 

 will not need to be taught to eat what is at once the most delicate 

 in substance, and delicious and aromatic in flavor, of all the many 

 good fruits of the tropics. 



This remarkable fioiit (Durio zibethinus) grows upon a tall 

 forest tree, sixty to eighty feet in height, having a smooth, naked 

 tnank, and otherwise a general resemblance to our hickory. The 

 fruit is very much the same in size and shape as a pineapple, but 

 the entire outside is a bristling array of dark-green, conical spines, 

 three-fourths of an inch high and very sharp. Sometimes, how- 

 ever, the fruit is smaller, and quite round. It is a painful matter 

 to hold a durian except by the stem, and I would about as soon have 

 a six-pound shot fall upon me as one of them. This wholly 

 abominable pod smells even more offensive than it looks, the odor 

 given off being like that of a barrel of onions at its most aggressive 

 stage. Many people are unable to eat durians at all, on this ac- 

 count, but my first one disappeared so suddenly as to greatly 

 astonish and amuse the spectators. 



The fruit hangs upon the tree until it ripens and falls of its 

 own accord, and then the husk is pulled open very easily from the 

 blossom end toward the stem, which discloses five longitudinal 

 compartments or ceUs, in each of which is a row of large chestnut- 

 shaped seeds, about five in each shell, each of which is thickly 

 coated with a soft, grayish, pulpy mass, which is the edible portion. 

 In consistency it resembles flour paste, but in flavor it resembles 

 nothing under the sun. There are, indeed, faint suggestions of 

 black walnuts and rich cream, chocolate and sugar, but all these 



