1673.—"Others presented a Mock-Creation of a Mango-Tree, arising from the Stone in a short space (which they did in Hugger-Mugger, being very careful to avoid being discovered) with Fruit Green and Ripe; so that a Man must stretch his Fancy, to imagine it Witchcraft; though the common Sort think no less."—Fryer, 192.
1690.—"Others are said to raise a Mango-Tree, with ripe Fruit upon its Branches, in the space of one or two Hours. To confirm which Relation, it was affirmed confidently to me, that a Gentleman who had pluckt one of these Mangoes, fell sick upon it, and was never well as long as he kept it 'till he consulted a Bramin for his Health, who prescrib'd his only Remedy would be the restoring of the Mango, by which he was restor'd to his Health again."—Ovington, 258-259.
1726.—"They have some also who will show you the kernel of a mango-fruit, or may be only a twig, and ask if you will see the fruit or this stick planted, and in a short time see a tree grow from it and bear fruit: after they have got their answer the jugglers (Koorde-danssers) wrap themselves in a blanket, stick the twig into the ground, and then put a basket over them (&c. &c.).
"There are some who have prevailed on these jugglers by much money to let them see how they have accomplished this.
"These have revealed that the jugglers made a hole in their bodies under the armpits, and rubbed the twig with the blood from it, and every time that they stuck it in the ground they wetted it, and in this way they clearly saw it to grow and to come to the perfection before described.
"This is asserted by a certain writer who has seen it. But this can't move me to believe it!"—Valentijn, v. (Chorom.) 53.
Our own experience does not go beyond Dr. Fryer's, and the hugger-mugger performance that he disparages. But many others have testified to more remarkable skill. We once heard a traveller of note relate with much spirit such an exhibition as witnessed in the Deccan. The narrator, then a young officer, determined with a comrade, at all hazards of fair play or foul, to solve the mystery. In the middle of the trick one suddenly seized the conjuror, whilst the other uncovered and snatched at the mango-plant. But lo! it came from the earth with a root, and the mystery was darker than ever! We tell the tale as it was told.
It would seem that the trick was not unknown in European conjuring of the 16th or 17th centuries, e.g.
1657.—"... trium horarum spatio arbusculam veram spitamae longitudine e mensâ facere enasci, ut et alias arbores frondiferas et fructiferas."—Magia Universalis, of P. Gaspar Schottus e Soc. Jes., Herbipoli, 1657, i. 32.
MANGOSTEEN, s. From Malay manggusta (Crawfurd), or manggistan (Favre), in Javanese Manggis. [Mr. Skeat writes: "The modern standard Malay form used in the W. coast of the Peninsula is manggis, as in Javanese, the forms manggusta and manggistan never being heard there. The Siamese form maangkhut given in M‘Farland's Siamese Grammar is probably from the Malay manggusta. It was very interesting to me to find that some distinct trace of this word was still preserved in the name of this fruit at Patani-Kelantan on the E. coast, where it was called bawah 'seta (or 'setar), i.e. the 'setar fruit,' as well as occasionally mestar or mesetar, clearly a corruption of some such old form as manggistar.">[ This delicious fruit is known throughout the Archipelago, and in Siam, by modifications of the same name; the delicious fruit of the Garcinia Mangostana (Nat. Ord. Guttiferae). It is strictly a tropical fruit, and, in fact, near the coast does not bear fruit further north than lat. 14°. It is a native of the Malay Peninsula and the adjoining islands.