Of certain Trees which produce Meal, Honey, Wine, and Poison.
Near to Java is another country called Panten, or Tathalmasin[1], the king
of which has many islands under his dominion. In this country there are
trees which produce meal, honey, and wine, and likewise the most deadly
poison in the world; the only remedy for which is human ordure dissolved in
water, which, drank in considerable quantify, acts as a cathartic, and
expels the poison. These trees are very large; and, when cut down, a
quantity of liquor exudes from the trunk, which is received into bags made
of leaves, and after exposure for fifteen days to the sun, it hardens into
meal. This is first steeped in sea water, and is afterwards washed in fresh
water, when it becomes a savoury paste, which may either be eaten as bread,
or cooked in various ways[2]. I have eaten of this bread, which is fair on
the outside, and somewhat brown within. Beyond this country, the Mare
Mortuum, or Dead Sea[3], stretches with a continual current far to the
south, and whatever falls into it is seen no more. In this country there
grow canes of an incredible length, as large as trees, even sixty paces or
more in height. There are other canes, called cassan, which spread over
the earth like grass, even to the extent of a mile, sending up branches
from every knot; and in these canes they find certain stones of wonderful
virtue, insomuch, that whoever carries one of these about him, cannot be
wounded by an iron weapon; on which account, most of the men in that
country carry such stones always about them.
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