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It is called, in the Malayan language, Bohon-Upas; with the juice of it the most poisonous arrows are prepared; and, to gain this, the condemned criminals are sent to the tree with proper direction both to get the juice and to secure themselves from the malignant exhalations of the tree; and are pardoned if they bring back a certain quantity of the poison.
The Bohon-Upas is situated in the island of Java, about twenty-seven leagues from Batavia, fourteen from Soura Charta, the seat of the Emperor, and between eighteen and twenty leagues from Tinksor, the present residence of the Sultan of Java.
This destructive tree is called in the Malayan language Bohon-Upas, and has been described by naturalists; but their accounts have been so tinctured with the marvellous, that the whole narration has been supposed to be an ingenious fiction by the generality of readers.
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