[Sidenote: FRUITS.] Here, for the first time, I tasted the water of a certain delicious kind of cocoa-nut, which was frequently sent by his majesty; it was highly flavoured, and tasted like burnt almonds. Oil is made in large quantities, and is used, when fresh, for cooking, burning, and for anointing the skin, and nourishing the hair. A little later, and the delicious mangosteen will be ripe, the orange, the durian, the pineapple, and lichi, will be in abundance, besides all the other tropical fruits common to this climate. The only vegetables we have yet seen on our table are the sweet potatoe, yam, garlic, onion, Indian corn, beans, peas, and _celery_, which latter is used in soups only. The valley of the Menam produces marsh-rice, of various qualities, and in the greatest abundance; it is often exported in large quantities, by license from the king. Rice is almost the only article of food used by the inhabitants; this vegetable is mixed with a little balachang and compound of shrimps, or the spawn of shrimps, or small fish, mixed with salt, and dried in the sun, and then moistened with fish-pickle: it is not only unsavoury to Europeans, but some of it is most offensive to the smell. The inhabitants have but two meals a day, in the morning and evening; the richer add tea, which is drunk in great quantities, without sugar or milk, during the day. Chewing areca and smoking cigars, are common to all, even among small children, and both are constantly used during their waking hours. CHAPTER XVII. PRESENTATION AT THE PALACE OF BANG-KOK--DESCRIPTION--ROYAL ELEPHANT--WHITE ELEPHANTS--KING OF SIAM--GREAT TEMPLE OF GUATAMA--CITY OF BANG-KOK--TEMPLE OF WAT-CHAN-TONG, AND FIGURE OF BUDHA--BANYAN TREE--FIRE-FEEDERS--MISSIONARIES. [Sidenote: PRESENTATION AT THE PALACE.]