Anything, However Simple, Is Better Than An Empty Stomach, And
When The Latter Is Positively Empty It Is Wonderful How The
Appetite Welcomes The Most Miserable Fare.
At Newera Ellia the jungles would always produce a supply for a
soupe maigré.
There is an esculent nillho which grows in the
forest in the bottoms of the swampy ravines. This is a most
succulent plant, which grows to the height or length of about
seven feet, as its great weight keeps it close to the ground. It
is so brittle that it snaps like a cucumber when struck by a
stick, and it bears a delicate, dark-blue blossom. When stewed,
it is as tender as the vegetable marrow, but its flavor
approaches more closely to that of the cucumber. Wild ginger
also abounds in the forests. This is a coarse variety of the
"amomum zintgiber." The leaves, which spring from the ground,
attain a height of seven or eight feet; a large, crimson, fleshy
blossom also springs from the ground in the centre of the
surrounding leaf-stems. The root is coarse, large, but wanting
in fine flavor, although the young tubers are exceedingly tender
and delicate. This is the favorite food of elephants on the
Ceylon mountains; but it is a curious fact that they invariably
reject the leaves, which any one would suppose would be their
choicest morsel, as they are both succulent and plentiful. The
elephants simply use them as a handle for tearing up the roots,
which they bite off and devour, throwing the leaves on one side.
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