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MAIiACCA TO INDIA. 195
seizes the person by the back of the neck. Like other wild
beasts, he is too cowardly to face a man. The Malays have
the saying, " If you will only speak to a tiger, and tell him
he can get better food in the jungle, he wiU spare you."
SPICY GEOVES. — BEGGARS UNKNOWN.
I
Descriptions of cinnamon-trees, clove-trees, and others of
this nature, might be interesting. Let a brief sketch of the
nutmeg-tree suffice. Handsomely formed, and beautiful in
proportion, it grows from twenty-five to thirty feet high,
and is thickly covered with polished dark-green leaves,
which continue fresh the year round. The fragrant blossoms
are thick, wavy bells, resembling the hyacinth or lilyof-the-valley.
When the fruit is ripening, it might be mistaken,
say the old cultivators, for the peach, bating the pink
or yellow cheek. When the nut inside is ripe, the fruit
splits down, remaining half open. If not now picked, it
soon falls.
On the same branch — as with the orange—may
be seen the bud, blossom, and the ripening fruitage.
Nutting-fields
in the Singapore region have nearly gone to
decay. A cureless blight has rendered their spice-gardens
unprofitable.
Want of energy in the Malay Islands, and other portions
of the East, has become a proverb. There is little inducement
to labor where Nature is so unsparing. AU individuals
are about as lazy as they can afford to be ! Two hours of
daylight in the Malay Peninsula is enough for a native to
build a decent "shanty," and thatch it. Beggars are unknown
away from seaports and cities. They have but to
lift the hand, to pluck plenty of fruit. Most delicious
pine-apples sell for fifty cents a hundred in the Singapore
market.
VOLCANIC BELTS, AND MINERALS.
One of the great volcanic belts of the globe stretches
along across these Malayan Islands. The breadth of the belt