INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 17 



flesh in the Eastern Archipelago. Dendeng is made 

 of the flesh of deer, oxen and buffalo, and by the 

 Chinese of that of the wild hog. It is a considerable 

 article of native trade in the East. 



In India pieces of mutton are dried in the sun and 

 cured with spices and a little salt. It is exported to 

 Burmah and used locally. It is said to be very good 

 when roasted and ppunded. 



This custom of drying meat in the sun is also prac- 

 tised in Africa. It is thus described by Captain Burton 

 in his " Lake Eegions of Central Africa." " The African 

 preserves his meat by placing large lumps upon a little 

 platform of green reeds erected upon uprights, about 

 eighteen inches high, and by smoking it over a slow 

 fire. Thus prepared, and with the addition of a little 

 salt, the provision will last for several days, and the 

 porters wiU not object to increase their loads by three 

 or four pounds of the article, disposed upon a long stick 

 like gigantic kabobs. They also jerk their stores by 

 exposing the m«at upon a rope, or spread upon a flat 

 stone, for two or three days in the sun 5 it loses a con- 

 siderable portion of nutriment, but it packs into a con- 

 veniently small compass. This jerked meat when dried, 

 broken into small pieces and stored in gourds or in pots 

 full of clarified and melted butter, forms the celebrated 

 travelling provision in the East, called kavurmek ; it is 

 eaten as a relish with rice and other boiled grains." 



The charqui of South America, salted, is a product of 

 sun-drjdng ; and the desiccation of carcases, without de- 

 composition, on the plains has been a matter of common 

 observation. 



It is stated in Turner's " Embassy to Thibet " (4to, 

 London, 1806, p. 301), that the flesh of animals is pre- 

 served frost-dried — not frozen — and it keeps without 

 salt. He says, " I had supplies of this prepared meat 

 during all the time I remained at Teshoo Loomboo, 

 which had been cured in the preceding winter. It was 

 perfectly sweet, and I was accustomed to eat heartily of 

 it, without any further dressing, and at length grew 



c 



