tc wards faw another lift of thefe culprits, at the jail-keeper’s at
*• Soura Chart a-, and found that they pcrfeitly correfponded
“ with each other, and with the different informations which I
“ afterwards obtained.
“ I w a s prefent at fome o f thefe melancholy.ceremonies,
“ and deiired different delinquents to bring with them fome
“ pieces of the wood, or a fmall branch, or fome leaves o f this
“ wonderful tree. I have alfo given them filk cords, defiring
*' them to meaiure its thicknefs. I never could procure more
j| than two dry leaves that were picked up by one o f them
1 on his return ; and all I could learn from him concerning the
“ tree itfelf, was that it flood on the border o f a rivulet, as de-
“ fcribed by the old prieft; that it was o f a middling fize; that
“ five or fix young trees o f the fame kind flood clofe by it; but
“ that no other fhrub or plant could be feen near i t ; and that
“ the ground was o f a brownifli fand, full o f ftones, almoft im-
“ pradticable for travelling, and covered with dead bodies.
“ After many converfations with the old Malayan prieft, 1 quef-
« tioned him about the firft difcovery, and afked his opinion o f
“ this dangerous tree; upon which he gave me the following
“ anfwer;
H W e are told in our new Alcoran, that above an hundred
« years ago, the country around the tree was inhabited by a
“ people llrongly addidled to the fins o f Sodom and Gomorrha ;
“ when the great prophet Mahomet determined not to fuffer
| them to lead fuch deteftable lives any longer, he applied to
. « God to punifh them ; upon which God canfed this tree to grow
“ out
*( out of the earth, which deftroyed them all, and rendered the
“ country for ever uninhabitable.
“ Such was the Malayah opinion. I fhall not attempt a com-
“ ment; but muft obferve that all the Malayans confidered this
J| tree as an holy inftrument o f the great prophet to punifh the
■“ -fins of mankind; and therefore to die o f the poifon of the Upas
“ is generally confidered among them as an honorable death.
“ For that reafon I alfo obferved, that the delinquents who were
“ going to the tree, were generally drefled in their beft ap-
“ parel.
“ T h is however is certain, though it may appear incredible,
xt that from fifteen to eighteen miles round this tree, not only
“ no human creature can exift, but that, in that fpace o f ground,
t( no living animal o f any kind has ever been difcovered. I
“ have alfo been allured by feveral perfons of veracity that there
“ are no fifh in the waters, nor has any rat, moufe, or any other
“ vermin been feen there; and when any birds fly fo near this
“ tree that the effluvia reaches them, they fall a facrifice to the
“ effeits of the poifon. This circumftance has been afcertained
“ by different delinquents, who, in their return, have feen the
M birds drop down, and have picked them up dfead, and brought
“ them to the old ecclefiaftic,”
Mr. Foerfch gives us an account o f the fatal effeits in the following
melancholy narration. “ In the year 1776, in the month
“ o f February, I was prefent at the execution of thirteen o f the
“ emperors concubines, at Soura Cbartaj who were convifted of
“ infidelity to the emperor’s bed. It was in the forenoon, about
“ eleven o’clock, when the fair , criminals were led into an open
“ fpace within the walls of the emperor’s palace. There the
V ol. IV. H “ judge