into mats, into a coarse kind of cloth, ropes, and small
cordage. Among the many just observations which mark the
authenticity of the accounts of two Mahomedan travellers,
who visited China in the ninth century, that of the variety of
uses to which the cocoa tree is applied is not the least curious.
“ The people of Oman,” says one of these travellers, “ go to
“ the Cocoa islands, and, having felled the tree, with the
“ bark spin a yarn, with which they sew the planks together,
“ and so build a ship; of the same wood they cut and round
“ away a mast; of the leaves they weave the sails, and the
“ bark they convert into cordage: having thus completed
“ their vessel, they load her with cocoa nuts, which they
“ carry back to sell at Oman.”
Of all the delicious fruits that are produced in the East,
perhaps I may venture to say in the whole world, the mam
goostan may fairly set up its claim to the preference. The
tree on which it grows, though not magnificent, is extremely
beautiful, bearing, like the orange, both fruit and flowers at
the same time on the extremities of the branches. This fruit
is no less fascinating to the eye than it is gratifying to the taste.
Its form is round, generally a perfect sphere; the colour a
bright or dark purple, according to the degree of its ripeness;
it rests in a permanent green calyx, and the upper part is
surmounted by a corona, which is generally divided into as
many rays as the fruit within consists of lobes, which are of
a delicate white pulpy substance, covering each a small nut.
The husk or shell contains a brown astringent juice, which,
with oxyd of iron, makes a clear shining ink of a deep
purple. The annexed plate will convey a tolerably correct
B B