COCOA-NUTS FULL GROWN AND JUST FORMING.
They found the milk of the cocoa-nut a cool and refreshing beverage; and, on the assurance of the consul that they might take all they wished without fear of injury to their digestion, they proceeded with the demolition of more and more nuts, until the basket was emptied. The consul told them that the juice of the green cocoa-nut was a favorite beverage throughout Siam, and was considered by some people as far safer to drink than the water of the river.
"There is a good deal of vegetable matter in the river water," said he, "and it is undoubtedly the cause of derangements of the stomach when freely used. But the juice of the nut is pure and healthy, and its slightly acid taste makes it welcome to the palate. It is cool, as you have seen, and the acidity doubtless causes it to seem to be of a lower temperature than the surrounding atmosphere."
THE BREAD-FRUIT.
Fred asked if the famous bread-fruit was in the lot they had bought, and was rather disappointed at its absence. But a bread-fruit tree was pointed out to him as they floated down the river, and he made note of the fact that it was about forty feet high, and had a leaf nearly two feet long. The fruit resembled a large, very large apple, or perhaps a small melon; and the Doctor told him that the outer husk furnished a fibre like that of the cocoa-nut, which could be made into a sort of coarse cloth.
The Doctor further explained that the bread-fruit was baked in the shell, the same as an oyster is roasted, and that the inner pulp, when thus cooked, resembled a sweet-potato in taste, and was very nutritious. To the touch it was not unlike the soft part of a loaf of bread, and its name was due to this latter quality rather than to its taste. "It forms," said he, "the chief sustenance of the inhabitants of many of the islands of the South Pacific Ocean, and is to be found nearly everywhere in the tropics. It was introduced into the West Indies about a century ago, and its cultivation has been very successful in that region; later it was planted in Central America, and has become so well known and used that the natives rely largely upon it for their food. The product of three trees in some of the Pacific Islands will support a man for a year; and it is no wonder that he becomes lazy when he has nothing to do but pluck his food from a tree."