— 87 — 



when opened smells like rotten beef; it has large kernels covered with a 

 juicy and white pulp, fourtecn or fifteen in number andverysweetandni.ee; 

 when the kerneis are roasted they taste like ehestnuts. 



Citrons are abundant througliout the whole year; they are not very 

 sour and can be kept a long time without rotting. 



There is a kind of mango, called by the nativcs yam-pa ( ] ); it is like 

 a pear , but a little longer and has a green skin ; its smell is very strong and 

 when eaten the skin is removed and slices of the pulp are cut off; it is 

 sour and sweet, very nice, and the kernel has the size of a fowl's egg. 

 Peaches, pears and such fruit are not found at all. 

 The vegetables are onions, leek, ginger and mustard; squashes are 

 very abundant and last long; the water-melon is green outside and has red 

 kernels; some grow to the length of two and three feet. 



The people keep many cows and milk is extensively sold. The goats 

 are all black; white ones are not found. There are no capons, the natives 

 not understanding how to castrate them, but their large fowls weigh as much 

 as 7 caties and are very tender; with a little cooking they taste well, in 

 fact they are superior to the fowls in any other country. The ducks have 

 short legs and some weigh as much as five or six caties. They have also 

 mulberry -trees and the people rear silkworms, but they do not understand 

 how to spin the silk and only make wadding of it. 



The customs of this country are pure; the language, the marriage and 

 burial ceremonies, the dress etc. are all the same as in Malacca. 



The houses of the people are high from the ground and have no 

 flooring of boards ; they split up cocoa- or areca-palmtrees , which are fastened 

 with rattan, over this they put rattan-mats and so live in them. 



This place is visited by many native ships and the trade in native 

 articles is very important; the money used are coins of gold and tin. The 

 golden coins are called dinar ( 2 ) and contain seven tenths of pure gold; they 

 are round, have a diameter of 5 f en official measure (l.G centimeters) and 

 weigh 2 f en 3 li (a little more than 9 decigrammes) ( 3 ). 

 In trading they make much use of tin money. 



O Eor the rednetion of these weights and measures, see note on page 52. Instead of 2 

 fên 3 li however, we have to read 2 cKièn 3 Jen, which is ten times as much, and then we get a weight 

 of about 10 grammes for the dinar, which suits its size better and agrees with the details given on 

 the next page. 



