256 SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 



The Curries of the East. — The dishes in Sumatra are almost all prepared 

 in that mode of dressing to which we have given the name of curry (from 

 an Hindostanee word), which is now universally known in Europe. It is 

 called in the Malay language goolye, and may be composed of any kind of 

 edible, but is generally of flesh or fowl, with a variety of pulse and succu- 

 lent herbage, stewed down with certain ingredients, by us termed, when 

 mixed and ground together, curry powder. These ingredients are, among 

 others, the cayenne, or chili pepper, turmeric, serraye, or lemon grass, 

 cardamums, garlick, and the pulp of the cocoa-nut bruised to a milk, resem- 

 bling that of almonds, which is the only liquid made use of. This differs 

 from the curries of Madras and Bengal, which have greater variety of 

 spices, and want the cocoa-nut. It is not a little remarkable that the 

 common pepper, the chief produce and staple commodity of the country, is 

 never mixed by the natives in their food. They esteem it heating to the 

 blood, and ascribe a contrary effect to the cayenne, which I can say my own 

 experience justifies. A great diversity of curries is usually served up at 

 the same time, in small vessels, each flavoured to a nice discerning taste, in 

 a different manner ; and in this consists all the luxury of their tables. Let 

 the quantity or variety of meat be what it may, the principal of their food 

 is rice, which is eaten in a large proportion with every dish, and very fre- 

 quently without any other accompaniment than salt and chili pepper. It 

 is prepared by boiling in a manner peculiar to India ; its perfection, next 

 to cleanness and whiteness, consisting in its being, when thoroughly dressed 

 and soft to the heart, at the same time whole and separate, so that no two 

 grains shall adhere together. The manner of effecting this is by putting 

 into the earthen or other vessel in which it is boiled no more water than 

 is sufficient to cover it, letting it simmer over a slow fire, taking off the 

 water by degrees with a flat ladle or spoon, that the grain may dry, and 

 removing it when just short of burning. At their entertainments the guests 

 are treated with rice, prepared also in a variety of modes, by frying it in 

 cakes, or boiling it mixed with the kernel of the cocoa-nut and fresh oil in 

 small joints of bamboo. This is called lemmung. Before it is served up 

 they cut off the outer rind of the bamboo, and the soft inner coat is peeled 

 away by the person who eats. — Marsderi's " Sumatra." 



The enduring odour of musk is astonishing. When Justinian, in 538, 

 rebuilt what is now the Mosque of St. Sophia, the mortar was charged with 

 musk, and to this very day the atmosphere is filled with the odour. 



PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 



The Eruption in May, 1860, of the Kollugja Volcano, Iceland. By W. Lauder 



Lindsay, M.D., F.L.S. 

 Annales de l'Agriculture des Colonies for January. 

 Pharmaceutical Journal for January. 

 The Chemist and Druggist. No. XVIII. 

 Record of the Astro-Meteorological Society. No. I. 



