230 AREQUA AND MANGOS. [1697. 



year round. The Tree that bears the Nut calPd Arequa, is 

 very tall and straight. They commonly wrap up a quarter 

 of an Arequa-'^ Vii'^ in some Betel -'LQd^.wQS, and so chaw them 

 together : Some add a little Slack'd-Lime, but that is not in 

 use at Batavia. 



Mango is a Fruit of the Country, which passes for very 

 good and very wholsom. It is commonly about the bigness 

 of an Egg, but longer, and a little crooked like a Gerkin 

 Cucumber. Its Eind is green and thick, and I have heard 

 some say they have seen red of them. The inside is white, 

 and tasts somewhat like a J/«5c«^-Grape : It is very fast ty'd 

 by its Fibres to the Stone, which is large. This Fruit grows 

 upon a great Tree, very proper for the Carpenter.^ There is 

 a sort of Mango without a Stone, which is pickled in Vinegar 

 like this, with Garlick, Anniseed, and some other Ingre- 

 dients. 



The Gardens^ of Batavia furnish the Inhabitants with 

 Herbs and Pulse of the Buropean kind, from whence the 



1 ^^ Pinangis the name of the kernel of the areca-nut {Airca cathecu) ; 

 but it seems likewise to mean the mixture of the ingredients they use 

 for mastication." (Wilcocke, /. c, vol. i, p. 78 ; vide ante, p. 197.) 



" The betel is a plant which produces long rank leaves, in their shape 

 resembling those of a citron ; in taste they are of an agreeable bitter. 

 The fruit grows in the shape of a lizard's tail, about two fingers' 

 breadth, very long, of an aromatic flavour, and in its smell extremely 

 grateful. The Indians carry with them continually the leaves of betel 

 at all visits ; they are presented in ceremony, and the natives are 

 almost perpetually chewing them. As the taste is very bitter, they 

 for the most part qualify them with araca fauful (a kind of nut some- 

 thing smaller than the nutmeg, without taste, and yielding when 

 chewed a red juice), or the powder of calcined oyster-shells. Thus 

 prepared they have a very agreeable flavour. After they have chewed 

 the juice out of them, they spit forth the dry mass. There are 

 some who mix their betel-leaves with lime, amber, and cardamom- 

 seeds, others with Chinese tobacco." {Universal Hist., vol. ix.) 



2 In orig. : " dont le bois est propre pour la charpente." 



3 The handsome country houses in the environs of Batavia, with 

 beautiful gardens and plantations around them, extended for miles 

 to the east, west, and south of the city. (Cf. Thorn and Stavoriuus.) 



