nd thirty. Plantains we found in great plenty: We procured also
some pine-apples, water melons, jaccas, and pumpkins; besides rice, the
greater part of which was of the mountain kind, that grows on dry land;
yams, and several other vegetables, at a very reasonable rate.

The inhabitants are Javanese, whose Raja is subject to the Sultan of
Bantam. Their customs are very similar to those of the Indians about
Batavia; but they seem to be more jealous of their women, for we never
saw any of them during all the time we were there, except one by chance
in the woods, as she was running away to hide herself. They profess the
Mahometan religion, but I believe there is not a mosque in the whole
island: We were among them during the fast, which the Turks call
_Ramadan_, which they seemed to keep with great rigour, for not one of
them would touch a morsel of victuals, or even chew their betel, till
sun-set.

Their food is nearly the same as that of the Batavian Indians, except
the addition of the nuts of the palm, called _Cycas circinalis_, with
which, upon the coast of New Holland, some of our people were made sick,
and some of our hogs poisoned.

Upon observing these nuts to be part of their food, we enquired by what
means they deprived them of their deleterious quality; and they told
us, that, they first cut them into thin slices, and dried them in the
sun; then steeped them in fresh water for three months, and afterwards,
pressing out the water, dried them in the sun a second time; but we
learnt that, after all, they are eaten only in times of scarcity, when
they mix them with their rice to make it go farther.

The houses of their town are built upon piles, or pillars, four or five
feet above the ground: Upon these is laid a floor of bamboo canes, which
are placed at some distance from each other, so as to leave a free
passage for the air from below; the walls also are of bamboo, which are
interwoven, hurdlewise, with small sticks, that are fastened
perpendicularly to the beams which form the frame of the building: It
has a sloping roof, which is so well thatched with palm leaves, that
neither the sun nor the rain can find entrance. The ground over which
this building is erected, is an oblong square. In the middle of one side
is the door, and in the middle between that and the end of the house,
towards the left hand, is a window: A partition runs out from each end
towards the middle, which, if continued, would divide the who