enominated saag,[23] these are
produced at all seasons of the year, in many varieties; the more
substantial vegetables, as potatoes, turnips, carrots, &c., are called
turkaaree.

The red and green spinach is brought to the market throughout the year,
and a rich-flavoured sorrel, so delicious in curries, is cultivated in
most months. Green peas, or, indeed, vegetables in general, are never
served in the plain way in which we see them at our tables, but always in
stews or curries. The green mango is used invariably to flavour their
several dishes, and, at the proper season, they are peeled, cut, and dried
for the year's consumption. They dislike the acid of the lemon in their
stews, which is never resorted to when the green mango or tamarind can be
procured.

The fruits of India in general estimation with the Natives are the mango
and the melon. Mangoes are luscious and enticing fruit; the Natives eat
them to an excess when they have been some hours soaked in water, which,
they say, takes away from the fruit its detrimental quality; without this
preparatory precaution those who indulge in a feast of mango are subject
to fevers, and an increase of prickly heat, (a fiery irritable rash, which
few persons are exempt from, more or less, in the hot weather); even biles,
which equally prevail, are less troublesome to those persons who are
careful only to eat mangoes that have been well soaked in water. The
Natives have a practice, which is common among all classes, and therefore
worthy the notice of foreigners, of drinking milk immediately after eating
mangoes. It should be remembered that they never eat their fruit after
dinner, nor do they at any time indulge in wine, spirits, or beer.

The mango in appearance and flavour has no resemblance to any of the
fruits of England; they vary in weight from half an ounce to half a seer,
nearly a pound; the skin is smooth, tough, and of the thickness of leather,
strongly impregnated with a flavour of turpentine; the colour, when ripe,
is grass green, or yellow in many shades, with occasional tinges and
streaks of bright red; the pulp is as juicy as our wall-fruit, and the
kernel protected by a hard shell, to which fine strong silky fibres are
firmly attached. The kernel of the mango is of a hot and rather offensive
flavour; the poor people, however, collect it, and when dried grind it
into flour for bread, which is more wholesome than agreeable; in seasons
of scarcity, however, it is