VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SI AM AND MALACCA. 97 



are as long as a finger and the fruits are quite round instead 

 of being" obverse ovate like those of the others. The man 

 whose real profession it was to dig' for the roots and to sell 

 them, told me, that the further inland this root was dug, the 

 more aromatic it was ; he said one had to dig it out at least 

 so far from the sea, that one could not hear the noise of the 

 waves any more. 



He further maintained that the root must be dug accord- 

 ing to the compass, and that only those gTOwing northward 

 were g'ood, the others had just the reverse effect. 



The use of this root is very g-eneral amongst the Portu- 

 guese, although it has no tasle and only a faint sweet odour. 

 They specially use it against any kind of headache. They 

 either grind it with a grater or with the skin of the ray; 

 they then mix it with the urine of very small children, and with 

 this mixture they rub their forehead and temples. They use 

 it in the same manner against eruptions of the skin and aganist 

 rheumatism. I have not heard that they r.se it for any in- 

 ternal purpose. The root is sometimes as thick as an arm and 

 has a bark, which is white outside and brown on the inside 

 and about as thick as the back of a knife ; it is spicy, salt and 

 very brittle. The woody part is fibrous, shiny, pretty hard, 

 white-grey and resembles the birch -wood, only it is not as 

 white. I for my part believe that the name of the root and 

 the urine have more effect upon the old women, specially the 

 Koman Catholic ones, than the root itself. This has had the 

 effect that the root is often dug for here in Malacca and has 

 been sent to (loa and other Roman Catholic places, but as this 

 creed is rather in decline at this moment, the belief in this 

 consecrated remedy is also in decline. 



24. — At last this morning I got some small plants of the 

 Limones, which Mr. Obeck describes in his voyage to China, 

 pag. 129 in the German translation. He calls it Pompelnut, 

 like the people of Java, but the Malays call it Limau Burroh, 

 I first saw them in Sallangor being sold for washing purposes, 

 as they have such agreeable odf^ur, stronger than all the other 

 kinds of Lemons. Their leaves are like those of orange trees; 

 only the divisions are still deeper tha)i those of the oranges 

 and the smell of their leaves is much more agreeal)Ie. 



1 prepared myself for a journey to the Water islands, 



