648 
Supplement to the "Tropical Agticulturist.'' [March 1, 1904. 
The natives enjoy tlie flavour, ■while the stranger 
has to acquire the liking. Excellent preserves are 
nnade of the ripe fruit, which, for this purpose, is 
boiled down in sugar and candied (like citron). 
At the sugar-houses slices of the p:ip:iw are 
often seen seething In hot syrup. The slices of 
melon combined with some ocid fruit is made into 
native tarts, which articles corre^^pond more or 
less to what we call " pies." Tiie fiuit is also 
stewed and served on the table. The green fruit 
is made into plain and spiced pickles, which are 
highly esteemed. 
The fruit, just before ripening, is peeled and 
sliced, macerated in cold water, with frequent 
changes of water for some hours; the then 
macerated fruit is dropped into boiling water, 
boiled sharply, and then served as a vegetable. 
As an article of food one finds the papaw 
prepared in a score of wnys, making a variety of 
edible dishes, which, from the native standpoint, 
■would be expessed in our language as " wondrous 
and nutritious delicacies." 
A plant so universally distributed and possessed 
with such varied properties naturally takes an 
important place in the native m'lteria medica. 
The seeds are reputed as anthelmintic and 
emmenagogue; they are also used as a thirst 
quencher, form component parts of a drink used 
in fevers, as well as being used as a carminative. 
Syrups, wines, and elixirs made from the ripe 
fruit are expectorant, sedative, and tonic. 
A malady, which the natives call the " cocoa 
bag," is a troublesome tropical disease, reputed to 
be hereditary and contagious; at all events, it 
seems to lurk in the blood of persons of otherwise 
apparently good health and habits. Suddenly the 
■victim becomes a mass of offensive sores, debili- 
tated, &,c. The native doctors add the pupaw 
fruit to the diet drinks used in this disease, and 
succeed in moderating its violence, at least. To 
the sores a paste made with the papaw milk as one 
of the constituents is also applied. 
The slight pimples accompanying the first stages 
of the ya^ws soon spread into ulcerous sores that 
cover the entire body. Here, too, the claim is 
made that a slice of the papaw rubbed over the 
pimples will abort them. It is also claimed that 
the ulcers may be cleaned in a similar fashion^ 
I witnessed a most striking cleansing of a black 
foot in which the chiga hud bortd and laid its 
eggs, producing a mass of foulness beyond descrip- 
tion. Here a paste of the papaw milk was pushed 
into the seething mass and kept there for forty- 
■ eight hours. It was then flushed, curetted, and 
antiseptics were applied. A clean wound, which 
readily healed, resulted. 
The green leaves or slices of the green fruit of 
the papaw are rubbed over soiled and spotted 
clothes, and, by its power of dissolving stains, 
papaw has acquired the name of "melon ble iCh." 
The leaves or a portion of the fruit are steeped in 
water, and the treated water is used in washing 
coloured clothing, especially black. The colours 
are cleaned up and held fast. 
The seeds are eaten as a delicacy. They have 
quite an ngreeable taste, something of the order 
. oi water-cress, and a piquancy slightly suggestive 
of the mustard family, Macera,ted in vinegar 
they are served as a condiment. 
The strange and beautiful races of the Antilles 
astonish, the eyes of the traveller who sees them 
for the first timt\ It has been said that tliey have 
taken their black, brown, and olive, and yellow- 
skin tints from the sati'iy and briglit-hued rinds 
of the fruit which surround them- If they 
are to be believed, the mystery of tiieir clear, clean 
complexions and exquisite pulp-like flesh arises 
from the use of the papaw fruit as a cosmetic, 
A slice of the ripe fruit is rubbed over the skin, 
and is said to dissolve spare flesh and remove every 
blemish. It is a toilet requisite in use by the 
young and old, producing, according tb the words 
of a French writer, " the most beautiful specimens 
of the human race." 
The me<-it in these countries is tough and taste- 
less, beef, mutton, pork or fovvl have the same 
flavour, a id are as tough as hickory wood; boiling 
until they full to pieces does not render them any 
more tender, they simply change from solid wood 
to fine tough splinters. 
One reason for this is that in this climate meat 
must be eaten immediately after slaughtf^r, (It 
often reaches the pot in an hour after killing.) 
The papaw helps to overcome this. Rubbed, over 
tough meat it will render it soft, and change a 
piece of apparent leather to a tender, juicy steak. 
It is put into the pot with meat, enters into 
cere lis, soups, stews, and other dishes, and they 
are made at least more edible and digestible. 
PADDY CULriVAIION IN THE HANBAN- 
TOTA DISTRICT. 
Before the construction of the anicut across 
Walawe river, the people depended almost en- 
tirely on chena cultivation for their subsistence. 
Except for two or three hundred acres on either 
bank of the river, cultivated by its backwater, 
there were no paddy-fields elsewhere. 
Chena cultivation being entirely dependent on 
favourable weather conditions, the lot of the 
people was indeed a miserable one. 
But now matters have completely changed with 
the construction of the anient, and there are now 
over 2,000 acres cultivated regularly. Paddy cul- 
tivation being comparatively new to the majority 
of the cultivators here, their methods are yet 
very crude, and it is only due to the very rich 
soil that they are able to rai&e remunerative 
crops. I have introduced from the Western Pro- 
vince a paddy called "Murungn," which is har- 
vested 75 days from date of sov.'ing. This paddy 
gives fair crops and has adapted itself well to 
its new surroundings. But what pleases me most 
is that the local goyiya who does not like things 
new has a high oftinion of the paddy. It has now 
spread far and wide in the East and West Giruwa 
Pattu and the Magam Pattu. 
This paddy is specially suitable for Tank dis- 
tricts where the water supply is limited. As we 
generally commence sowing with Bala Suduwi 
or Mukalawi which takes 90 days, this paddy 
comes in useful as it can be sown 15 days after 
the above varieties, and yet come iu at about the 
