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A Description of the principal Fruits of Siam.
THE Figs of India, which the Siameses do call Clouey-ngouan-tchang, Elephant's Trunks, have not the taste of our Figs, and, in my mind, they are not so good. Thus the Melons of Siam are not true Melons, but the Fruit of a Tree known in the Isles of America under the name of Papayer. I have not eaten of this Fruit. But to return to the Fig, it is of the size and shape of a Sausage. Its green Skin, which waxes yellow and spotted with black in its maturity, is easily separated from its soft and clammy pulp, and 'tis that which has given it the name of Fig; but in the midst of its pulp there is no vacuity, nor any of those kernels which do make as it were a little gravel in our Figs, when they are a little dry'd. Its taste is strong, and it has something of sharpness and sweet∣ness both together.
The Bananas, which the Siameses do call Clouey-ngaa-tchang, or Elephant's Tooth, is almost the same thing as the Fig, save that it is greener and longer, and that it has Angles, and Faces or flat Sides, which are re-united point-wise at both ends. These Fruits do hang like Nosegays, or rather like great Bunches of Grapes, from the top of the Trunk of the Trees which bear them. The Figs grow hard in the Fire, the Bananas which are not altogether so delicate raw, do wax soft again, do there lose their sweetness, and do acquire the taste of our Pip∣pins ripen'd on the Apple Tree.
The Goyaye (in Siamese Louc-Kiac, Louc signifies Son, Kiac is the name of the Goyavier) is about the size of a middling Apple. Its Skin is of a grayish green, like that of certain Pears: under this Skin is a pulp of the consistence of that of the Citron, but not so white. When it is put into the mouth, it savors the Strawberry; but this Strawberry taste soon loses itself, because it becomes too strong. This pulp, which exceeds not the thickness of a Crown-piece, contains a liquid substance like Broth, but grayish, and which would not be less pleasant to eat than the pulp, if it was not mix'd with an innumerable number of small kernels so hard, that it would be difficult to chew them.
The Jacques, in Siamese Ca-noun, are of the shape of a great Melon ill rounded. Under a grayish Skin fashioned like Chagrin, they have a very great number of kernels, or stones; stones, if we consider their magnitude, which is almost like a Pigeon's Egg: kernels, by the thin and smooth wood which incloses them. These stones therefore or kernels being broil'd or boil'd, differ not from our Chestnuts either in taste or consistence, excepting that they are, in my opinion, more delicate. At one end they stick to a pulp which invelops them all, and separates them one from the other. It is easily torn off, according to the course of its fibres; it is yellow, juicy, clammy, and glutinous, of a sweet taste, and strong smell. It is not possible to chew it, they only suck it.
They gave us a Fruit like to Plums, and we at the first appearance were de∣ceived. It had the pulp and taste of a Medler, and sometimes two, sometimes three stones, but bigger, flatter, and smoother, than the Medler has them. This Fruit is called Moussida in Siamese.
The Ox-heart was so named by reason of its size and shape. The Skin there∣of is thin, and this Fruit is soft, because that on the inside it is only a kind of white Cream, and of a very agreeable taste. The Siameses do call it Man∣cout.
The Durion, in Siamese Tourrion, which is a Fruit very much esteem'd in the Indies, appear'd insupportable to me for its ill smell. This Fruit is of the size of our Melons cover'd with a prickly Coat like our Chestnuts. It has also, like the Jacques, several stones, but as big as Eggs, in which is contained what they eat, in the inside of which there is also another stone. The fewer there is of these stones in a Durion, the more pleasant the Fruit is. There never is less than three.
The Mango, in Siamese Ma-mouan, participates at first of the taste of the Peach