MACASSAR PR A HUS. 
45 
the fruit as seen sold in our markets. The colour- 
less liquid which issues on the nut being opened 
has the appearance of water, but has a slightly 
sweet flavour, and is most refreshing. The 
natives allowed us to enter their dwellings, 
and seemed as pleased to have a white visitor 
as she was to make herself acquainted with the 
interior of a bamboo-hut. 
In one long street edging the beach there is a 
series of miniature shipbuilding yards, where the 
famous Macassar prahus are built. These vessels 
are of such curious construction that a short de- 
scription might interest you. Looking at a 
native prahu, you would scarcely care to trust 
yourself to a voyage of some thousands of miles 
in it, but they cruise all over the archipelago 
with as few casualties as any other sort of 
craft. The shape suggests a Chinese junk. 
Some arc as small as a fishing-coble — I speak of 
one of about eighty tons burden, with about 
thirty of a crew. The deck slopes greatly down 
to the bows : it is thus the lowest part of the 
vessel which cuts the waves. The strangest part 
of its construction, and a source of much appre- 
hension to any called to trust their life in a 
prahu for a considerable voyage, tis a 'large hole 
about a yard square which runs through the 
