Ball — On the Colloquies of Garcia JDe Orta — II. 649 
COLLOQUY XXXI. 
Do PAo Chamado ''Gate" do Yulgo ; e diz-se nelle couzas 
PEOVETIOSAS. 
[Catechu, prepared from the wood of Acacia catechu, "Willd., and 
A. suma, Kurz, trees which grow to from 30 to 40 feet high.] 
Called cate {hatha) in India, also by Arabs and Persians ; cato in 
Malacca (Borneo ?) ; hac dudh by Avicena and Serapion. The tree is 
called hac chic in the land where it grows, and it is the licium of Galen 
and Pliny, so named because it was first found in Licia. The tree, says 
Garcia, is specially abundant in Cambay, also in the lands of Bassein, 
Manora, Mandwa, Damun, and on the mainland near Goa. The pre- 
pared catechu was, he says, exported in abundance to Malacca and 
China, to be eaten with betel, and was taken as a medicine to Arabia, 
Persia, and Khorassan. The wood, he adds, is strong and heavy, and 
is used for pestles and clubs for husking rice (this is the case still). 
He says the tree has flowers but no fruit (the fruit consists of pods). 
The wood when cut from the tree was boiled,^ and the preparation 
thus obtained was mixed with the flour of nachani (? ragi or murwd, 
Elusine corocana) and made into lozenges. He says it affords a very 
astringent and comforting medicine, good for fluxes and for pains in 
the eyes, and that it strengthens the gums and teeth, and kills the 
worm in them. 
He shows the improbability of its being exported in bags of 
rhinoceros and camel skins, as Pliny had stated to be the case, by point- 
ing out the rarity or absence of these animals in the countries where it 
is produced. He states that the rhinoceros was called gramdas ^ {gandd), 
and that in Bengal the horn was used as an antidote to poison, and that 
the Mzam would give 200 times its weight in gold for true unicorn 
horn. 
He judiciously adds that he does not altogether like to say what 
he has heard about the unicorn, because his informants were not them- 
selves eye-witnesses of what they related ; but admits that they said 
that it was to be found between the Capes of Corrientes and Good Hope, 
^ I have frequently seen this process in operation. See Jungle Life in India," 
p. 61. 
2 Gandas, as quoted by Thomse Bartholini, "deunicornu," Amsterdam, 1678, 
p. 157, &c. 
3 A 2 
