134 VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 



many idols in various positions, among* them some with their 

 hands crossed and turned up. A table like an altar stood a 

 little more in front, on it were also some idols and some deep 

 china vessels, which were filled with sand, into which some 

 lighted staffs had been stuck. These staffs are really placed 

 there for fumigating- purposes. Before the principal idols there 

 hung a red silk curtain half down over the altar, at both sides 

 hung four narrow wooden boards, the two nearest the middle 

 being black were covered with red characters, and the longest 

 of them were five yards long and ten inches wide. The boards 

 nearer the sides were orange red, and covered with black 

 characters; they were shorter. These boards were said to 

 contain their doctrines. 



23. — I described some of the plants I found. The treatment 

 had a very bad effect on the sick man, and therefore another 

 sacrifice was offered to the gods by the Jungalish priests as 

 they did yesterday. 



24. — To-day the priests came again and went through 

 their ceremonies. I went to a pagoda and found the Saraca 

 blooming very beautifully and having an unripe pod ; I also 

 found the burning Glycine with large, grape-like dark red blos- 

 soms, the calyx of which was overgrown with burning hair and 

 the stigma was prickly. One of these flower bunches was more 

 than ^a foot long\ I saw the Phaseolus urens with beautiful 

 blossoms. 



25-26. — I had very much to do with the sick man during 

 these days ; he had been brought to the gates of death by 

 means of the injection. The whole of his right groine was 

 very much inflamed and swollen, without showing any sign of 

 redness externally. I tried to reduce this inflammation by means 

 of strong fomentations of a decoction of the Indian Sid a, with a 

 solution of lead in vinegar. Internally I used some camphorated 

 spirits and gave him at the same time two clysters, upon which 

 his fits diminished. The rest of the time I spent in looking my 

 collection and in making my Chloris Siamensis as perfect as 

 possible. 



27. — I went higher up into the country to another temple, 

 also situated on a small branch of a stream. The burning 

 Glycine grew here everywhere frequently, but it had not yet 

 any white pods. I found a new big Acrostichuni in fruit, it 



