78 
BREAD-FRUIT. 
on a sharp slope. The harvest of the bread- 
fruit was not yet ready ; but as Mr Wallace’s 
account had made us curious to see it, one 
specimen very nearly ripe was discovered and 
climbed up for. “It is generally about the size 
of a melon, a little fibrous towards the centre, 
but everywhere else quite smooth and puddingy, 
something in consistence between yeast -dum- 
pling and batter- pudding. We sometimes made 
curry or stew of it, or fried it in slices ; but it is 
no way so good as simply baked. It may be 
eaten sweet or savoury ; with meat and gravy it 
is a vegetable superior to any I know, either in 
temperate or tropical countries. With sugar, 
milk, butter, or treacle, it is a delicious pudding, 
having a very slight but characteristic flavour, 
which, like that of good bread and potatoes, one 
never gets tired of.” Probably ours was badly 
cooked, or perhaps was not ripe enough. I 
think it suggests vegetable marrow. 
We scarcely understood the Tengah-tengah 
people : they speak the okl language of the 
country, quite different from the Amboinese 
Malay, and they wear the sarong and head- 
cloth, discarded as derogatory by the Christian- 
ised Amboinese. Curious vagaries are played 
with the hair of the little boys. The head is 
