The family Robinson Crusoe

by Johann David Wyss

^[12] This species of the orange, or rather of the citron-tree, originally a native of Medea and Assyria, reaches in those countries to the astonishing height of sixty feet.—Dictionary of Natural History.

^[13] Cabbage palmist.—Palmist is the generical and vulgar name for all palm-trees which bear at their tops a vegetable production which may be eaten before it has arrived at a state of maturity. What is called cabbage, is the closely-folded leaves, which assume the form of that plant, at the summit of the tree, which attains to a prodigious height in the Society Islands. This cabbage substance, when young, has a delicate flavour not unlike an artichoke, and is excellent fried; but the tree dies when the cabbage is cut off. This kind of palm, and indeed all others, has numerous uses. On cutting the cabbage, the tree yields some pints of a liquor similar to champaign, and which by the process of fermentation will afterwards produce good vinegar; and by distillation, a strong alcohol or brandy. Its seed or kernel furnishes a thick sweet oil or vegetable butter. The covering of the kernels is made into vessels and cups of all sorts, and is as strong as porcelain. The leaves are used as tiles on the roofs of houses, for parasols and coverings for the head, and may be written upon, like paper. Its ligneous stalk produces large threads for sewing, and for string. Some of the palms, the cocoa-palmist in particular, yields cool sweet liquid which by evaporation leaves a sugar of a tolerably good quality. In a word, the palm is a far-extended good, an inestimable treasure bestowed by a bountiful Providence on the inhabitants of the soil which produces it.

^[14] Buffalo; a ruminating quadruped of the ox species, which it nearly resembles in form and stature; the head is larger, the snout longer, and its horns, which almost touch at the root, spread to a distance of five feet at their extremities: its ears are also larger and pointed. The whole form of the buffalo, and no less its motions, announce amazing vigour and strength; but the enormous size of the head, the singular curvatures of its long horns, under which appears a large tuft of bristly hair of a yellowish white colour, give a terrific ferocity and wildness to its physiognomy. The animal inhabits hot countries. It is used in Italy as a domestic beast for tillage and drawing. The method adopted for taming the buffalo is by fixing a ring in the nostril when about three years old. The operator contrives to entangle the legs with a string, and the animal falls to the ground; several men fall upon it and confine the legs, while others make the wound and pass the ring; it is then left: it runs furiously from place to place, and endeavours to get rid of the ring; in a short time it begins to be accustomed to its fate, and by degrees to learn obedience. A cord is fastened to the ring to lead the buffalo; if it resists, it suffers pain; it therefore prefers to yield, and thus is brought to follow a conductor willingly. After a certain time, the ring falls off, but the creature has, ere this, become attached, and will follow its master. Nothing is more common than to see a buffalo return from a distance of forty miles to seek him. Their young keepers give them a name, which they never fail to answer to, and on hearing it pronounced they stop short in the midst of a company of their species. Troops of buffaloes are found together in the plains of America and Asia that are washed by rivers; they do not attack men unless provoked; but the report of a gun renders them furious, and extremely dangerous: they run straight to the enemy, throw him down with their horns, and do not desist till he is crushed to death in the struggle. A red colour irritates them, and they are hunted with infinite care and precaution.—Dictionary of Natural History.

^[15] Prickly palm, or Adam’s needle.—The leaves of this tree are sometimes ten feet in length; they are winged in form, and the petals are furnished with long sharp thorns, which stay on the trunk even when the leaves are decayed, and form, from their numbers and strength, a sure defence against being approached. The fruit of this tree is larger than a pigeon’s egg, of an oblong shape, of a yellow colour, and like velvet to the touch. A yellow oily substance is found in the covering of the fruit, which is greedily eaten by monkeys, cows, and other animals. An oil for cooking or for the lamp is also extracted from it.

Dwarf palm.—The fruit is yellow, and contains grains inclosed in a cuticle, somewhat sour to the taste. Savages make an agreeable kind of beverage from them. The leaf, like the former, is thorny.—Dictionary of Natural History.

^[16] Malabar or Indian Eagle, is small; not above the size of a large pigeon; but in the smallness of its volume elegance of symmetry and beauty of plumage are united; the animation of its eyes, its lively movements, the boldness of its look and attitudes, give to its whole physiognomy the appearance of pride and courage. The Malayese have made it one of their idols, and offer it a kind of worship. A tuft of large feathers of a dazzling white, the lower part of which is of a deep shining black, covers the head, the neck, and all the breast of this handsome bird; the rest of the plumage is of a very bright chesnut-colour, with the exception of the tip of the six first feathers of each wing, which is black. The beak is ash-coloured, and of a yellowish green at the point; its membrane is blue, feet yellow, talons black. This species is found in Malabar, Visapour, the Mogul Empire, &c. In voracity it does not fall short of any other.—Dictionary of Natural History.

^[17] Mr. Huber Lullin, of Geneva, has published an excellent treatise on the economy of bees he has given the most singular and best-attested circumstances of the queen bee; but what more astonishes is, that he, who has thrown such lights on this attractive object of natural history, is blind.

^[18] Onagra, Œigitai and Koulan;—apparently different names for the same animal, varying according to the countries where, it is found and authors who have spoken of it: in shape and structure it holds the midway betwixt the horse and ass; its head is strong and erect in the state of rest; it proudly snuffs the air in its course, which is more fleet than the swiftest horse. Its neck finely turned, chest full and open, back long, spine concave and rough, haunches taper, hoofs like the ass, mane short and thick, the jaw containing thirty-four teeth, tail two feet long, and exactly like a cow’s, shoulders narrow and bare of flesh: it has great suppleness in all its members and motions. The hair is mostly of a yellowish brown; a reddish yellow covers the fore-part of the head, and between the legs; the mane and tail are black. Along the back is a dark-brown stripe, that grows broader from the loins upwards, and becomes narrower towards the tail. In winter its hair is long, curled, waving; in summer short and glossy. These animals stray in numbers over the vast deserts and open plains abounding with saline herbage: they never approach the woods or mountains. They have the senses of hearing and smelling in perfection. Their neighing, somewhat peculiar, is much louder than that of the horse. They are timid and wild, and their chief defence is in their speed; yet they are of a peaceful, social nature. They commonly troop together from twenty to thirty, sometimes a hundred: each troop has its leader that watches over its safety, conducts it, and gives the signal of flight when danger is near. The token of alarm is bounding thrice round the object of their fear. If their leader is killed, (and he frequently is, by approaching closer to the hunters than the rest,) the troop disperses, and it is easy to kill and take them. The Mongou Tartars highly prize the flesh, which they find delicious; but the œigitai has not yet been tamed, even when taken young. Could it be domesticated, it would doubtless be a prime beast for the saddle, but it is of an untameable disposition; when the utmost attempts have been made to subdue them, they have died in breaking rather than submit to the restraint. If our Swiss Robinson succeeded by the extraordinary means he specifies, it was a complete triumph. The name of œigitai, applied to the onagra or wild ass in the countries where it is most common, comes from the word dshiggetei, which in the Tartar language means long ears in fact its ears are very long, but more erect, and better shaped, than those of the ass.

^[19] Phormion, or Flax-plant;—a plant of New Zealand made known by Cook. The inhabitants of that island get from its leaves a very strong flax, with which they make stuffs, nets, ropes, &c. They are two or three feet long, two inches broad, shaped like a sword. Steeped in water, they produce fibres longer and stronger than those of flax, and which are equal in fineness. The climate where this useful plant is found, inclines one to think it might be cultivated with success in Europe, and turned to considerable account. When these leaves are opened upon the plant, an inodorous gum issues from them, which is transparent, of a straw-colour, and in every respect similar to gum arabic.