“The bread-tree grows abundantly. Its branches are well known to Europe
and America under the familiar name of _maccaroni_. The smaller twigs
are called _vermicelli_. They have a decided animal flavor, as may be
observed in the soups containing them. Maccaroni, being tubular, is the
favorite habitat of a very dangerous insect, which is rendered peculiarly
ferocious by being boiled. The government of the island, therefore,
never allows a stick of it to be exported without being accompanied by a
piston with which its cavity may at any time be thoroughly swept out.
These are commonly lost or stolen before the maccaroni arrives among us.
It therefore always contains many of these insects, which, however,
generally die of old age in the shops, so that accidents from this source
are comparatively rare.
“The fruit of the bread-tree consists principally of hot rolls. The
buttered-muffin variety is supposed to be a hybrid with the cocoa-nut
palm, the cream found on the milk of the cocoa-nut exuding from the
hybrid in the shape of butter, just as the ripe fruit is splitting, so as
to fit it for the tea-table, where it is commonly served up with cold”—
—There,—I don’t want to read any more of it. You see that many of these
statements are highly improbable.—No, I shall not mention the paper.—No,
neither of them wrote it, though it reminds me of the style of these
popular writers. I think the fellow who wrote it must have been reading
some of their stories, and got them mixed up with his history and
geography. I don’t suppose _he_ lies;—he sells it to the editor, who
knows how many squares off “Sumatra” is. The editor, who sells it to the
public—By the way, the papers have been very civil haven’t they?—to
the—the what d’ye call it?—“Northern Magazine,”—isn’t it?—got up by some
of those Come-outers, down East, as an organ for their local
peculiarities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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