CHAPTER VII

Summary

There are tamarinds everywhere in India in great quantity; the trees are very high, like pear-trees, and higher, with a fruit resembling a peascod, which the Indians use for verjuice to put in soup; the wood they burn. It is also highly laxative.

The cassia-tree resembles the pear-tree, but with a longer leaf; it bears a yellow, sweet-smelling flower. It blooms in the month of September, then it produces long cods of a green colour, which blacken as they ripen. The Indians make small account of it. It grows of itself without being sown or tended. When the cassia is ripe—that is, in the month of January—it falls; and at this season the people abstain from eating the flesh of animals such as cows and sheep, which then causes fluxes and dysenteries, by reason of the laxative powers of the cassia, which these beasts eat, finding it lying on the ground. The Dealcan country is full of it; I have seen it only round about Goa.

In the Indies are also found mirabolans, which are like plum-trees; there are great numbers at Cochin and Calecut. The fruit also is like a plum; it is very delicate, and is made into conserves and comfits.