ACHEEN
TELLICHERRY COAST FROM OLD FORT, LOOKING NORTH
Singapore pepper, by reason of its dark color and fairly uniform quality, is a good-looking pepper, and for that reason it is esteemed, but for grinding purposes it has not been heretofore so highly regarded, because of its smoky odor, as it is dried over smoke. The pepper plantation and the gambier plantation of Johore are usually under one management, and in boiling down the gambier to make the vegetable extracts there are suspended over the kettle mats on which are placed quantities of the Singapore pepper.
The smoke from the furnace dries and at the same time blackens the pepper and gives it the unmistakable smoky smell which is characteristic of Singapore pepper. This smoky odor is retained to a considerable degree after the pepper is ground, and it is one of the tests by which pepper merchants determine whether a given sample is Singapore or not. The Singapore pepper from Borneo is divided into, first, the Mullacca, which is the best and heaviest; second, the Caytongee; and third, the poorest sort, Negara, which is most abundant, and which is small and usually falls to dust. Mangalore pepper, named from the city of Mangalore ([Fig. 3]), is the largest pepper corn grown. It is nearly twice the size of ordinary pepper, is of a deep black color, very clean, and of uniform size. When ground it yields a powder of a characteristic greenish appearance. Lampong pepper takes its name from a district bordering on the east end of the Island of Sumatra near the Straits of Sunda where it grows. There is also a city in the district by the name, Lampong (meaning bobbing in water), where all the men and women meet at a central market house to transact their business matters. The Lampong pepper corns are less uniform in size than those of the other varieties before mentioned, and are also of a lighter color, and the surface contains much dirt. Acheen, Sumatra, or West Coast, are names applied to the pepper found on the great wild island of Sumatra, visited by Marco Polo in 1291. The island is divided into semi-independent states, each being ruled by its own prince or chief, who may be called Sultan, Rajah, or Datto. The interior of Sumatra is inhabited by the lion and the tiger, and by bands of savage Malays mixed with Dyaks of Borneo and Hindoos, some of whom are very savage. Among these are the head-hunters, or cannibals, who impose as a penalty for certain crimes that the guilty one is to be cut to pieces and eaten, and sometimes is to be eaten alive. This class of people are found in the south of Achin.
Acheen pepper ([Fig. 2]) takes its name from the district by that name, or from the city of Acheen (native dialect, Atkeh) (see [illustration]) and the district of Acheen, which exported in the year 1904, 60,000 piculs (136 lbs. each); Telak Betang (South Sumatra) exported 50,000 piculs (136 lbs. each); Padang, Sumatra (meaning an open plain), produces much pepper of good quality, and the Bataks, of North Sumatra, have long been devoted to its cultivation. The designation East and West Coast, as formerly used, have been (as have also the three names it was known by on the island, “Iada-Iawor” or “Lampoon,” “Iada Manna,” and “Iada Jambee”) lost track of, and the pepper is now designated according to its specific gravity as A, B, C, or D grade.
A grade weighs at least 4 lbs., 13 oz. to the imperial gallon (481 grams per liter).
B grade weighs at least 4 lbs., 5 oz. to the imperial gallon (431 grams per liter).
C grade weighs at least 3 lbs., 13 oz. to the imperial gallon (381 grams per liter).