Journal of a Voyage 
themselves in the mud, and then lying 
with their nostrils just above water, until 
the fervency of the atmosphere has some- 
what abated. On coming out from the 
cool retreats, they are the most ancouth 
and disgusting objects imaginable, having 
a coat of Glay an inch or two in thick- 
ness, which in a few minutes is hardened 
by the sun into a crust that defends their 
hides from bis powerful rays during the 
remainder of the day. 
They are the only animals used for la- 
bour; their flesh is tolerably good, and 
an excrescence that grows on the top of 
their shoulders called a hump, when 
salted and well preserved, (especially in 
Bengal), is esteemed excellent eating; in 
short, it is the most useful animal in In- 
dia, 
Alligators are very common round the 
shores of this island, rendering it very un- 
safe to bathé on. any part of the coast. 
Snakes of an immense size have likewise 
been found here by the early settlers, 
but are now very rare. Bandicotes (a 
species of large rat,) are extremely nu- 
merous on the island, and do agreat deal 
of mischief, as does likewise the white 
ant. It is astonishing what effects these 
very small insects are capable of produ- 
cing; they will destroy the interior parts 
of the beans and rafters in houses; leav- 
ing a thin external shell of sound wood, 
that completely deceives the eye, and 
lulls into a false security the unsuspecting 
lodger, who frequently sees iwith astonish- 
ment the whole fabric come tumbling to 
the ground without any apparent cause, 
or perhaps, is himself involved in its 
ruins ! 
When these dangerous insects find 
their way on board of ships, it becomes 
a very serious concern; as no one can 
tell where they may be making their de- 
structive burrows, perhaps through a 
thin plank that separates the whole crew 
from eternity ! 
fn these cases there is no method of 
destroying them, but by sinking the ves- 
sel in shallow water for some days, until 
they are all drowned. 
The principal useful trees, shrubs, and 
plants on this island, are those that bear 
the cocoa-nut, areca-nut, pepper, and 
betel, 
The cocoa-nut tree is raised by bury- 
ing the nut (stript of its fibrous coat), at 
some depth in the ground; and it is very 
singular that the stem is nearly as thick 
when it makes its appearance above 
ground, as it ever becomes afterwards, 
Montury Mas., No. 167. 
an the Indian Seas. 663 
though it sometime rises to the height of 
fifty or sixty feet. 
The cocoa-nut milk forms a most deli+ 
eious and wholesome beverage in the hot 
weather; and so-does the toddy, which 
is this milk or juice fermented. 
Plantations of these trees are very vae 
luable, as they will rent'at a dollar a tree 
per annum, as long as they continue te 
bear fruit. The fibres round the nut are 
the most valuable parts, of which they 
make the koira cable, and rope, so much 
used in all the country ships. 
The areca tree makes avery handsome 
appearance ; its branches are small, but. 
its leaves are very beautiful, forming a 
round tuft at the top of the trunk, which 
grows as strait as an arrow to the height 
of twenty-five or thirty feet. 
The shell which contains the fruit is 
about the size of a walnut, and of a yel- 
lowish red colour outside, and rough 
within; when ripe, it is astringent, and 
not unpleasant to the taste. 
It is needless to say how much this rut 
(when mixed with leaves of the betel and 
chunam), is used in chewing by all classes 
of the natives. This composition is cail- 
ed pinang, (whence the name of the 
island), and though it has an agreeable 
flavour, it gives the mouths of the natives 
who use it a most diabolical appearance, 
rendering what few straggling teeth they 
have as black as jet; while their disgust- 
ing chops seem as gory as if ae had 
been mangling a piece of rawflesh! 
The pepper-plant isa shrub whose root 
is small, fibrous, and flexible; it rises inte 
a stem which requires a tree or prop te 
support it; its wood has the same knots 
as the vine, and when dry it exactly re- 
sembles the vine-branch. 
The leaves, which have a strong smell 
and pungent taste, are of an oval shape, 
but they diminish towards the extremity, 
and end in a point. From the flower- 
buds, which are white, and sometimes 
placed in the middle, sometimes at the 
extremities of the branclies, are produced 
small berries resembling those of the cur- 
rant bush; each cluster contains from 
twenty to thirty corns of pepper: they 
are commonly gathered in October, and 
exposed to the sun seven or eight days, 
The fruit, which was green at first, and af- 
terwards red, when stripped of its co-- 
vering, assumes the appearance it hag 
when we see it. It is not sown, but plant- 
ed; a great nicety is required in the 
choice of the shoots: it produces no 
fruit till the end of three years, but bears 
45 3 $0 
