In Eating they are easily satisfied, not but that the richer have many savoury dishes; Rice however is the cheif food of the poorer with a little fish or flesh as they can afford it. They have a great advantage over the Malays, not being taught by their laws or religion to abstain from any food that is wholesome, so that besides Pork, Dogs, cats, Frogs, Lizzards and some kinds of snakes, as well as many sea animals lookd upon by other people to be by no means Eatable, are their Constant food. In the vegetable way they also eat many things which Europeans would never think of even if starving with hunger, as the young leaves of many trees, that lump of Bractea and flowers at the end of a Bunch of Plantains, the flowers of a tree calld by the Malays Combang Ture (Eschinomine grandiflora), the Pods of Kellor (Guilandina Moringa), two sorts of Blites (Amaranthus) - all which are boild or stewd; also the seeds of Taratti (Nympha Nelumbo) which indeed are almost as good

Voyaging Accounts