WEST INDIAN DRIFT ON EUROPEAN SHORES 25 



Indies, and that their medicinal value was greatly esteemed by 

 the Turks. 



Almost everywhere on the European shores of the Atlantic the 

 stranded seeds of Entada scandens seem to have been used as snuff- 

 boxes; and in some places they served as tinder-boxes or match- 

 boxes. Many of the old authors (Sibbald, Debes, the two Wallaces, 

 Sloane, etc.) allude to the snuff-boxes improvised from these seeds 

 on the north-west coasts of Scotland, the Orkney Islands, and the 

 Faroe Islands ; and it is evident from the condition of seeds sent to 

 me from the Shetland Islands that the islanders utilised them for 

 one or other of these purposes. In Scandinavia they were also thus 

 employed. Thus De Capell Brooke, in his account of his travels 

 in these regions in 1820, refers to the conversion by the Sea Finns of 

 the seeds of Entada scandens into snuff-boxes. 



According to Martin the " black " Molucca Bean was specially 

 named " Crospunk " in the Hebrides. In Warrack's A Scots Dialect 

 Dictionary (1911) this name is applied to " the Molucca beans drifted 

 to the shores of some of the western islands " ; but no etymology 

 is given. This information was apparently derived from Jamieson's 

 Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, in which Martin 

 is quoted as the authority. The suggestion in Jamieson's work 

 (edit. 1879) that the word " would seem literally to mean in Gaelic 

 the point of the cross " can scarcely be sustained, since a more probable 

 origin presents itself in the old Scottish term spunk-box for match- 

 box or tinder-box. Evidently the large seeds of Entada scandens 

 are here implied. We have already noted their use as snuff-boxes, 

 match-boxes, etc., and the writer has himself found them in use as 

 match-boxes at the present day in several of the tropical homes of 

 the plant. Originally the spunk-box was the Hebridean's tinder-box 

 and afterwards his match-box; and when the West Indian drift 

 seed served the same purpose he gave it the same name. The prefix 

 need present no difficulty, since in Gaelic cro is a prefix possessing 

 among other meanings those of witchcraft and sorcery. (See 

 Dictionarium Scoto-Celticum, a Dictionary of the Gaelic Language : 

 Edinburgh, 1828.) On this view crospunk might signify " the 

 magician's tinder-box." We have already seen that in the Faroe 

 Islands nearly two and a half centuries ago the same West Indian 

 drift seed was known as Fairy's Kidney. 



Before discussing the West Indian seed-drift of European beaches 

 according to the localities in which it has been found, I will give the 

 list of the seeds and fruits that are most characteristic of it(pp. 26, 27). 



It is doubtful whether the seeds of any but the leguminous 

 plants in the following list would retain their germinative capacity, 

 which, it may be observed, has been established in the cases of the 

 Entada, Guilandina, and Mucuna seeds. It would be hopeless to 

 attempt to raise plants from the Manicaria specimens, and the 

 result would be uncertain in the case of Sacoglottis and Sapindus. 

 The prospects of success would be greater with Ipomcea tuberosa. 

 The seeds of Crescentia gourds would be lifeless, and the fruits of 

 Astrocaryum would be empty. Dioclea seeds would be sound, and 

 Erythrina seeds might preserve their vitality. 



