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Updated: May 21, 2025
Innes, Superintendent of Lower Perak, whose wife so nearly lost her life in the horrible affair at Pulo Pangkor, was in dejected spirits, as if the swamps of Durion Sabatang had been too much for him.
The Malay, seemingly satisfied with his triumph, now glided underneath the durion, and keeping his eye turned upward, as if intently watching something, he struck the fruit with the piece of pointed stick which he had been using in the search after Singapore oysters, and sent it spinning out upon the open sand beach.
Durion he enquired for traders we informed him one was in the next bend below & parted, he returned- & we proceeded on passed a large Island, the S. S. here we expected the Tetons would attempt to Stop us and under that Hear we prepared our Selves for action which we expected every moment. opsd. this Island on the L. S. a Small Creek Comes in, This Island we call Isd. of Caution we took in Some wood on a favourable Situation where we Could defend our men on Shore & Camped on a Sand bar 1/2 a mile from the main Shore. the wind changed to the N. W. & rose verry high and Cold which Continud.
Then the trees change, the long tresses of an autumn-flowering orchid fall from their branches over the road; dead trees appear transformed into living beauty by multitudes of ferns, among which the dark-green shining fronds of the Asplenium nidus, measuring four feet in length, specially delight the eye; huge tamarinds and mimosa add the grace of their feathery foliage; the banana unfolds its gigantic fronds above its golden fruitage; clumps of the betel or areca palms, with their slender and absolutely straight shafts, make the cocoa-palms look like clumsy giants; the gutta-percha, india rubber, and other varieties of ficus, increase the forest gloom by the brown velvety undersides of their shining dark-green leafage; then comes the cashew-nut tree, with its immense spread of branches, and its fruit an apple with a nut below; and the beautiful bread-fruit, with its green "cantalupe melons," nearly ripe, and the gigantic jak and durion, and fifty others, children of tropic heat and moisture, in all the promise of perpetual spring, and the fulfillment of endless summer, the beauty of blossom and the bounteousness of an unfailing fruitage crowning them through all the year.
A Dyak chief informed me that he had been struck by a durion falling on his head, which he thought would certainly have caused his death, yet he recovered in a very short time." Both the natives of the Malayan Archipelago and strangers residing there regard the durion as superior to all other kinds of fruit in short, the finest in the world.
Every village consists of such houses as I have described before, grouped, but not by any means closely, under the shade of cocoa-palms, jak, durion, bread-fruit, mango, nutmeg, and other fruit-trees. Plantations of bananas are never far off. Many of these people have "dug-outs" or other boats on the adjacent river, some have bathing-sheds, and others padi plantations.
When the durion strikes a man in its fall it produces a dreadful wound, the strong spines tearing open the flesh, whilst the blow itself is very heavy; but from this very circumstance death rarely ensues, the copious effusion of blood preventing the inflammation which might otherwise take place.
He saw the scratched arm, and the huge green globe lying upon the ground. "Dulion!" he said, glancing up to the tree. "Durion!" echoed the captain, pronouncing the word properly, as translated from Saloo's pigeon English. "Yes, cappen; foolee me no think of him befole. Belly big danger. It fallee on skull, skull go clashee clashee." This was evident without Saloo's explanation.
It was quite a change from the fruit diet of the durion, reversing our present as well as the old Roman fashion of eating, though not contrary to the custom of some modern nations the Spaniards, for example.
The jak fruit, which may be called food rather than fruit, grows without a visible stem from the trunk and branches of the very handsome tree which bears it, and weighs from sixty to seventy pounds. The durion grows to the size of a man's head, and is covered closely with hard, sharp spines.
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