‘^PADDOCKS’ STOOLS.’^ 
cies of fungus used to spring up, somewhat similar to 
a mushroom, but they were not mushrooms, they 
were more of the character of what is called in Scot- 
land, and what our Scotch friends will quite under- 
stand, paddocks^ stools. These the boy used to gather, 
bring them into the cooking-house, and, after select- 
ing and washing, make curry of them. If they were 
soft, fresh and new, the curry was not at all unpalat- 
able, and made the boiled rice go down very well. 
Up to the present day, coolies snll search after this 
commodity, and we have never heard of it doing them 
any injury. This was bad enough, but what do you 
think we sometimes ate when there were no paddocks^ 
stools ? Look about the clearing, after a spell of wet 
weather, and you will see attached to the line of trees in 
stages of decay, somewhat like a limpet on a rock, a 
species of mushroom-like growth, onlj' without a stalk, 
adhering firmlj to the logs ; this was picked ofl, 
brought to the kitchen, steeped in hot water to soften 
it, cot into small strips, and boiled into curry. All 
the boiling however would not make it soft enough 
to masticate, so that these strips of cooked fungus, 
or rather timber excrescences, were just bolted and 
swallowed, along with the rice. We suppose this 
sort of thing is unknown now however, but jou may 
recollect- them. In the swamps, a luxuriant plant 
used to grow, with a long succulent stalk about the 
thickness of the linger. These stalks were collected, 
brought to the bungalow, peeled, cleaned and made 
into curry. A sort of wild yam used to grow about 
the uncleared corners and edges of the jungle in 
stalk and leaf; it was just the same as the cultivated 
yam, but it had no root. The leaves of this plant 
were collected, Doiled into the consistency of spinach, 
and made into curry. We always rather avoided 
this curry, as it had a very bitter taste, unpleasantly 
bitter. Perhaps we were wrong, and, had we eaten 
heartily of it, it might have proved an excellent tonic! 
But the great stand-by was what the coolies still use 
to this day and what no doubt you have frequent 
rows with them for not pulling up in the weeding, 
kiraiy Kira s were of various sorts, but the chief 
was a fast-growing plant with plenty of stalks and 
leaves, and which, when come to maturity, produced 
a small berry when ripe quite black and about the 
size of a black currant. The cooly would, after work, 
proceed through the clearing, hunting after this 
kirai and would carefully pick ail the leaves @fF 
it, leaving stalks untouched, in order to produce a 
fresh crop at some future time. Now we were some- 
times reduced to such extremities, in order to procure 
omething for curry, as to be guilty of assault and 
