12
NUTMEGS book π
pepper which the Hollanders fetch from the coast of Malabar, 500 livres l
of it yield them only 38 reals, but on the merchandise which they give
in exchange they gain 100 per cent. It can be bought for the equivalent
in money of 28 or 30 reals cash, but to purchase it in that way would
be much more costly than the Dutch method. As for long pepper, without
going beyond the territories of the Great Mogul there is enough to be
obtained in the Kingdom of Gujarat ; it is generally sold at the rate
of from 12 to 15 mahmudïs the maund.2 The wood of long pepper costs but four mahmudïs.
Nutmeg, mace, clove, and cinnamon are the only spices which the Dutch have in their own hands.3 The three first come from the Molucca Islands, and the fourth, i.e. cinnamon, comes from the island of Ceylon.
There
is one remarkable fact about the nutmeg, namely, that the tree is never
planted. This has been confirmed to me by many persons who have dwelt
for many years in the country. They have assured me that when the nuts
are ripe certain birds which arrive from the islands to the south
swallow them whole, and reject them afterwards without having digested
them, and that these nuts, being covered by a viscous and sticky
substance, fall to the ground, take root, and produce trees, which
would not happen if they were planted in the ordinary way.4
I have here a remark to make upon the subject of the Bird of Paradise.
These birds, which are very fond of the nutmeg, assemble in numbers in
the season to gorge themselves with it, and they arrive in flocks as
flights of
1 i. e. £6 6s. to £6 15s. 2 9s. to 10s. 6d. for 34 livres.
3
Most of the cloves of commerce now come from Zanzibar and Pemba, where
the tree was introduced early in the nineteenth century: see Barbosa,
ed. Dames, vol. i, 1918, p. 28.
4
This is so far true as regards the fact that the great fruit-eating
pigeons are able to swallow large fruits, the stones of which they
afterwards reject. These pigeons belong to the genera Carpophaga and
Myristicivora, and Ball had often been amazed at the wide gape and the
mobility of the articulation of the jaws of these birds. When wounded
he had seen them disgorge very large fruits. Several species occur in
the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and other allied species in the
Malayan Archipelago. That these birds aid in propagating plants in
remote islands by conveying the seeds cannot be doubted. But it is now
raised from seed (Watt, 791).
