196 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



and the banana, the rest are superfluous. Where the 

 banana grows the papaw flourishes. Each is singular from 

 the fact that it represents wholesome food long before 

 arrival at maturity. 



Then as a medicine plant the papaw is of great renown. 

 The peculiar properties of the milky juice which exudes from 

 every part of the plant were noticed two hundred years ago. 

 The active principle of the juice known as papain, said to 

 be capable of digesting two hundred times its weight 

 of fibrine, is used for many disorders and ailments, 

 from dyspepsia to ringworm and ichthyosis or fish-skin 

 disease. 



By common repute the papaw tree has the power of 

 rendering tough meat tender Some say that it is but 

 necessary to hang an old hen among the broad leaves to 

 restore to it the youth and freshness of a chicken. In some 

 parts of South America papaw juice is rubbed over meat, 

 and is said to change "apparent leather to tender and 

 juicy steak." Other folks envelop the meat in the leaves 

 and obtain a similar effect. Science, to ascertain the verity 

 or otherwise of the popular belief applied certain tests, the 

 results of which demonstrated that all the favourable 

 allegations were founded on truth and fact. A common- 

 place experimentwas tried. A small piece of beef wrapped up 

 in a papaw leaf during twenty-four hours, after a short boiling 

 became perfectly tender ; a similar piece wrapped in paper 

 submitted to exactly similar conditions and processes 

 remained hard. Few facts are more firmly established than 

 that the milky juice softens — in other words hastens the 

 decomposition of — flesh. Further, the fruit in some countries 

 is cooked as a vegetable with meat, and in soups ; it forms 

 an ingredient in a popular sauce, and is preserved in a 

 variety of ways as a sweetmeat. Syrups and wines 

 and cordials made from the ripe fruit are expectorant, 

 sedative and tonic. Ropes are made from the bark of the 

 tree. By its power of dissolving stains the papaw has 

 acquired the name of the melon bleach ; the leaves, and a 

 portion of the fruit are steeped in water, and the treated 



