The Confessions of a BeachcomberBanfield, E. J. (Edmund James)
History
The Confessions of a Beachcomber
Banfield, E. J. (Edmund James)
Dunk Island (Qld.); Natural history -- Australia -- Queensland
Another curious, if not unique point about this estimable plant is that
sometimes within the cavity of a perfect specimen will be found one or
two infant naked fruits, likewise apparently perfect. Occasionally these
abnormal productions are crude, unfashioned and deformed.
Ripened in ample light, with abundance of water, and in high
temperature, the fruit must not be torn from the tree "with forced
fingers rude," lest the abbreviated stalk pulls out a jagged plug,
leaving a hole for the untimely air to enter. The stalk must be
carefully cut, and the spice-exhaling fruit borne reverently and
immediately to the table. The rite is to be performed in the cool of the
morning, for the papaw is essentially a breakfast fruit, and then when
the knife slides into the buff-coloured flesh of a cheesy consistency,
minute colourless globules exude from the facets of the slices. These
glistening beads are emblems of perfection. Plentiful dark seeds adhere
to the anterior surface. Some take their papaw with the merest sensation
of salt, some with sugar and a drop or two of lime or lemon juice; some
with a few of the seeds, which have the flavour of nasturtium. The wise
eat it with silent praise. In certain obvious respects it has no equal.
It is so clean; it conveys a delicate perception of musk--sweet, not
florid; soft, soothing and singularly persuasive. It does not cloy the
palate, but rather seductively stimulates the appetite. Its effect is
immediately comforting, for to the stomach it is pleasant, wholesome,
and helpful. When you have eaten of a papaw in its prime, one that has
grown without check or hindrance, and has been removed from the tree
without bruise or blemish, you have within you pure, good and chaste
food, and you should be thankful and of a gladsome mind. Moreover, no
untoward effects arise from excess of appetite. If you be of the fair
sex your eyes may brighten on such diet, and your complexion become more
radiant. If a mere man you will be the manlier.
So much on account of the fruit. Sometimes the seeds are eaten as a
relish, or macerated in vinegar as a condiment, when they resemble
capers. The pale yellow male flowers, immersed in a solution of common
salt, are also used to give zest to the soiled appetite, the
combination of flavour being olive-like, piquant and grateful. The seeds
used as a thirst-quencher form component parts of a drink welcome to
fever patients. The papaw and the banana in conjunction form an
absolutely perfect diet. What the one lacks in nutritive or assimilative
qualities the other supplies. No other food, it is asserted is essential
to maintain a man in perfect health and vigour. Our fictitious appetites
may pine for wheaten bread, oatmeal, flesh, fish, eggs, and all manner
of vegetables but given the papaw and the banana, the rest are
superfluous. Where the banana grows the papaw flourishes. Each is
singular from the fact that it represents wholesome food long before
arrival at maturity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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