102 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



name for all kinds of HolotlmHam^ or sea-cucnm- 

 bers." These latter animals abound on every coral 

 reef tkroughout the archipelago, just above and 

 below low-water level. As many as twenty different 

 sorts are recognized of perhaps half as many species. 

 That kind is considered the most valuable which is 

 found on the banks of coral sand which are bare, or 

 neai'ly bare, at low tidcj and are covered with a short, 

 gi'een sea-weed. After the animals are collected, the 

 intestines are removed, and they are boiled in sea- 

 water, in some places inth the leaves of the papaw, 

 and in otliers with the bark of a mangi^ove-tree which 

 gives them a bright-red color. After they have been 

 boiled, they are buried in the ground till the nest 

 day, when they are spread out to dry in the sun. 

 Sometimes they are not buried in the ground, but 

 dried at once on a framework of bamboo-splints over 

 a fire. They are now ready to be shipped to China, 

 the only market for this disgusting article. There 

 the Celestials make of them one of their many favor- 

 ite soups. It is said that the Chinese cooks boil 

 them some time with pieces of sugar-cane to partially 

 neutralize their rank flavor. Many are also gathered 

 in the Gulf of Siam and sent up the China Sea. Mr. 

 Crawfnrd has been unable to discover any mention 

 of tripang by the Portuguese writers, and this he re- 

 gards as one proof, among others, " that the Chinese, 

 who chiefly carry on this trade, had not yet settled 

 in the archipelago when tlie Portuguese first appeared 

 in it." There are yearly shipped from macassar some 

 fourteen thousand piculs of this article, of a value of 

 nearly six huncfred thousand dollai-s! A few car- 



