Accounts of the Fruit Fairs. 213 
terely acid, that they cannot be ufed \vith®ut dreffmg ; they 
make however excellent pickles and four fauce. 
37. The Salack ; or Calamus Rotang Zalacca of Lianasus. 
This is the fruit of a prickly bufh ; it is about as big as a wal- 
nut, and covered with fcales, lik® thofe of a lizard : below 
the fcales are two or three yellow kernels, in flavour fcmevvhat 
refembling a firawberry. 
Beiides thefe, the ifland of Java, and particularly the coun- 
try round Batavia, produces many kinds of fruit which were 
not in feafon during our flay; we were alfo told that apples, 
ftrawberries, and many other fruits from Europe, had been 
planted up in the mountains, and flourilhed there in great lu- 
xuriance. We faw feveral fruits preferved in fugar, that we 
did not fee recent from the tree, one of which is called Kim- 
hit, and another Boa Atap : and here are feveral others which are 
eaten only by the natives, particularly the Kellor , the Guilin- 
dina, the Moringa, and the Soccum. The Scccum is of the 
fame kind with the bread-fruit in the South Sea iflands, fyit 
fo much inferior, that if it had not been for the flmiiitude in 
the outward appearance both of the fruit and the tree, we 
fnould not have referred it to that clafs. Thefe and fome 
Others do not merit to be particularly mentioned. 
The quantity of fruit that is confumed at Batavia is incre- 
dible ; but that which is publicly expofed to fale is generally 
over-ripe. A flranger however may get good fruit in a ftreet 
called PaiTar PiTang, which lies north from the great church, 
and very near it. This flreet is inhabited by none but Chi- 
nefe fruit- fellers, who are fupplied from the gardens of gentle- 
men in the neighbourhood of the town, with fuch as is fieih, 
and excellent in its kind, for which however they mull be 
paid more than four times the market price. 
The town in general is fupplied from a conflderable dis- 
tance, where great quantities of land are cultivated merely for 
the production of fruit. The country people, to whom thefe 
lands belong, meet the people of the town at two great mar- 
kets ; one on Ivfbnday, called Pailar Sineen ; and the other 
on Saturday, called Paffar Tanabank. Thefe fairs are held at 
places conliderably dillant from each other, for the convenience 
of different ditlrifts ; neither of them' however are more than 
five miles diftant from Batavia. At thefe fairs, the bell fruit 
may be bought at the cheapen rate; and the fight of them to 
a European is very entertaining. The quantity of fruit is 
aftonilhing ; forty or fifty cart loads of the finefc pine apples, 
packed as carelekly as turneps in England, are common, and 
other fruit in the fame profufion. The days however on 
which thefe markers are held are ill contrived ; the time be- 
tween Saturday and Monday is too Ihort, and that between 
Monday and Saturday too long : great part of what is bought 
