168 VOYAGE FKOM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 



a peculiar kind of Contorta. It climbed, had opposite oval or at 

 times heart-shaped leaves, which were fleshy, smooth, and shiny 

 on the top. The fruit is peculiar ; it is of the size of a very big- 

 apple and is almost round ; at its stalk grows a projecting, sharp, 

 fleshy keel, which runs down almost half the side and grows 

 gradually smaller ; outwardly it is covered with a white-grey 

 rather shiny skin, and little sharp projecting dots, which are 

 sharp and irregularly distributed make it rough. Inside it is 

 fleshy and has many (seeds) . 



People here eat both the fruit and the leaves in their curries 

 and consider them to have healing qualities. But no aninal can 

 eat this fruit without dying, one has specially observed that as re- 

 gards pigs ; only on the monkeys it does not seem to have any bad 

 effect, because people are said to have observed that they eat the 

 ripe fruits. The fruit is full of an acid milk ; the whole descrip- 

 tion can be found among my description of other plants. I got 

 much ripe seed of the Phaseolus inehrians. It grew dark, and 

 nature presented another wonderful spectacle to my eyes. There 

 were millions of phosphorescent Cantharides, hanging among the 

 thin branches of the Siamese Lampu, bending as low as the 

 water ; they let their phosphorising light shine and disappear in 

 equal periods of time, and this time was so exactly kept that 

 practised soldiers could hardly have kept it more exactly ; it was 

 very rare that one of them was out of time. This spectacle 

 could be watched all along the river, further up than there were 

 any houses on its banks. 



13. — Early to-day I went again to two temples, which both 

 lie down the Pipli river. To the first of them I went on account 

 of two trees, from which I had only got imperfect blossoms ; one 

 of them had blossoms resembling those of the Mangostang, with 

 small lancet-shaped petals; the other one has blossoms like those 

 of the Mangos, with three larg^e petals ; both of them however 

 had not much advanced in growth during the last eight days. 



From here I went to another temple, to which the king after 

 resorted last year ; it had many pictures of different size on the 

 walls and on all pillars. There were two rows of pillars, six in 

 each row. The pictures represented a procession of boats, and 

 many scenes showing the splendour of their kings, their cars, etc. 

 Round about there were niches of about one foot high ; they were 

 all in one row and in them were placed gilt figures in sitting pos- 



