manner as the Scots pafs their nags over the narrow arms o f
the fea *.
It is pretended, that thefe canes are fb difliked by the crocodiles,
that they never feize on the navigators, as the iharks
in Greenland do on the poor Greenlanders, whom they bite in
two, -iecured as they feem to be, in their canoes.
In moil places, the joints are ufedas pitchers to carry water,
and i'ome will contain Sufficient to Supply the family for the
whole day. From this ufe it is named the Arundarbor Vafaria.
A t the fiege o f Mangalore, Tippoo Sultan mounted his fpears
on light bamboos, a hundred and forty-feven feet long, and
made his defperadoes mount the breaches, and under the fire
o f his artillery affail the brave garriion, inflidting diftant and
unexpedted wounds or death i .
In sChina, the joints perforated Serve as pipes for conveyance
o f water, and in the fame country, by macerating them, the
■Cbinefe make their paper, both coarfe and fine; fplit into {lender
lengths, this cane is o f much ufe in.making mats.. In ihort,
its ufes are innumerable.
T hey are often made ufe o f for frames o f houfes, for
which their ready fifiibility, and their lightnefs, peculiarly
adapt them.
T hey are greatly fearched after, as poles to carry burthens,
but particularly for the poles o f Palanquins; for this purpofe
they are bent while growing, to give them a proper curvature;
and when richly carved, as they often are, are fold at a vail
* V o y . Hebrides, laft edit. p. 326*— — Lucan, lib. iv. 131.
^ W a r s in A fia , i. 49 7. 9
price
price in the luxurious 'Coromandel, and other parts. Linfcofan,
and M. Sonnerat, give prints o f the effeminate great men of
India, attended by their ilaviih train, and making their fellow-
creatures their beads of burden, who go at the rate o f two
leagues an hour : I obferve fome of their attendants in the
faihion of the high toed fhoes, prohibibited in England in the
reign o f Edward IV ». Some I obferve attended with a dwarf
or two, a cuftom formerly very frequent, even in the European
courts.
T h is reed is alfo called Mambu, and was celebrated in early
times by the Arabian phyficians, for producing from its joints
a fort o f infpiffated juice, o f a fweet tafte, called Tabaxar, and T ab ax a a.
Sacar Mambu. It often grows dry, and is difcovered by its
rattling within the hollow of the reed i. It was a famed medicine
with all the Orientalijls, in outward and inward heats,
bilious fevers, and other diforders o f that nature, and in dyfen-
teries ; and it was reckoned peculiarly efficacious in difcharges
o f coagulated blood, fo frequently left in internal wounds.
Thefe ufes made it once a great article o f export from the
Malabar ports, The Brahmins alfo ufe this Sacar in their
medical prefcriptions.'
In this hot country, the reed is often applied to another ufe,
adapted to refreihthe exhauited native; it is bent fo as to form
arbours and cool walks o f confiderable length, delicious retreats
from the rays of the vertical fun. Finally, the application o f
it as an inlinnnent of puniihment (in China at left), o f the moil
* Holinflied’ s Chron. p. 668. + Acofta , in Eluf. E x o t, 164, 246.
Y ol, I, U ievere