ESCULENT SWALLOW. 



113 



mixed with ginseng, are put into the body of a 

 fowl ; the whole is then stewed in a pot, with a 

 sufficient quantity of water, and left on the coals 

 till morning, when it is ready to be eaten. 



These nests are found in vast numbers in cer- 

 tain caverns of various islands in the Soolo Archi- 

 pelago ; but are nowhere so abundant as about 

 Croee, near the south end of the island of Su- 

 matra. The best kind sell in China at from ono 

 thousand to fifteen hundred dollars the peckul 

 (about twenty-five pounds) ; the black and dirty ones 

 for only twenty dollars- It is said that the Dutch 

 alone export from Batavia one thousand peckuls 

 of these nests every year, which are brought from 

 the islands of Cochin-China, and those lying east 

 of them. 



The following description of these birds and 

 their nests is given by Sir George Staunton, in his 

 account of the Embassy to China. In the 

 Cass* were found two caverns running horizon- 

 tally into the side of the rock, and in these were 

 a number of those bird s nests so much prized by 

 the Chinese epicures. They seem to be com- 

 posed of fine filaments, cemented together by a 

 transparent viscous matter, not unlike what is left 

 by the foam of the sea upon stones alternately 

 covered by the tide, or those gelatinous animal 

 substances found floating on every coast. The 

 nests adhere to each other, and to the sides of the 

 cavern, mostly in rows, without any break or in- 



* A small island near Sumatra, 

 V. X. p. I. 8 



