EXPEDITION TO SURINAM. 225 



that the Tews are particularly fond of it, and ftew it CHAP. 



XXV. 



with butchers meat inftead of onions. ^. 



The phyftc-nut tree is likewife to be met with here; this 

 is a knotty flirnb, that grows about ten or twelve feet in 

 height, and very flender; the nut that it produces has a 

 kernel like an almond, and taftes as well, provided it be 

 deprived of a thin white fkin that adheres to it, otherwife 

 a violent vomiting and purging is the immediate confe- 

 quence of fw alio wing it. They alfo fliewed me feveral 

 kinds of peas and beans, and other fruits growing in pods ; 

 fuch as the cajjia, a Ihining hard yellow feed inclofed in 

 a woody fhell near fixteen inches long, and very fmall, 

 with a black foft pulp as fweet as honey : this is confi- 

 dered as a very fafe laxative : the caffia grows on a tree 

 very common in Guiana, and which is called foete boonties 

 and cotiaan. Another kind of pod, named feve-yaars 

 bcontiey is fo called, becaufe it is faid to be in bloffom 

 feven years before it produces. The ihrub called fnakee " 

 weeree-weeree alfo grows here ; they told me it was a fo- 

 vereign remedy for fevers, and I take it to be the fame 

 as the ferpentaria Firg'niiana, or Virginian fnake-root. 

 Laftly, I faw a vegetable or flower here called feven- 

 booTHy which is too frequently ufed by the young negro 

 girls to promote abortion, as arc alfo the green pine- 

 apples, which are faid to have the fame effeift. 



Thus having fpent not only an agreeable but an in- 

 ftrudtive day at Knoppemombo, we took leave of our 

 very good friend in the evening, and rowed coQtentedly 



Vol. U. G g back 



