of the Buddists,
especially, is only rich gilding.--E.

[2] This seems properly enough corrected on the margin by Hakluyt, by the
word Comori, or the country about Cape Comorin.--E.

[3] Simoltra or Sumatra.--Hakluyt.

[4] Probably alluding to tatooing, which will be explained in the voyages
to the islands of the Pacific ocean.--E.

SECTION VII.

_Of certain Trees which produce Meal, Honey, Wine, and Poison_.

Near to Java is another country called Panten, or Tathalmasin[1], the king
of which has many islands under his dominion. In this country there are
trees which produce meal, honey, and wine, and likewise the most deadly
poison in the world; the only remedy for which is human ordure dissolved in
water, which, drank in considerable quantify, acts as a cathartic, and
expels the poison. These trees are very large; and, when cut down, a
quantity of liquor exudes from the trunk, which is received into bags made
of leaves, and after exposure for fifteen days to the sun, it hardens into
meal. This is first steeped in sea water, and is afterwards washed in fresh
water, when it becomes a savoury paste, which may either be eaten as bread,
or cooked in various ways[2]. I have eaten of this bread, which is fair on
the outside, and somewhat brown within. Beyond this country, the _Mare
Mortuum_, or Dead Sea[3], stretches with a continual current far to the
south, and whatever falls into it is seen no more. In this country there
grow canes of an incredible length, as large as trees, even sixty paces or
more in height. There are other canes, called _cassan_, which spread over
the earth like grass, even to the extent of a mile, sending up branches
from every knot; and in these canes they find certain stones of wonderful
virtue, insomuch, that whoever carries one of these about him, cannot be
wounded by an iron weapon; on which account, most of the men in that
country carry such stones always about them. Many of the people of this
country cause one of the arms of their children to be cut open when young,
putting one of these stones into the wound, which they heal up by means of
the powder of a certain fish, with the name of which I am unacquainted. And
through the virtue of these wonderful stones, the natives are generally
victorious in their wars, both by sea and land. There is a stratagem,
however, which their enemies often successfully use against them, to
counteract the power of these stones. Providing themse