Mango

“ The drive from this to the house is a broad avenue of closely planted mango trees. The mango is one of the noblest of what may be called the civilized trees of the country, in contradistinction to the natives of the forest. In its loftiness, roundness of top, wide-spread limbs, and thickset foliage of deep green, it resembles the black ash of the Middle States, more than any tree familiar to you, which occurs to my recollection at the moment: the general outline is perhaps more spreading. It is the season of its blossoms, though these are not yet in full display. ”

“ The young leaves of the mango are of a brownish red; and amid the general profusion of green, they impart a not ungrateful relief to the eye. Even their russet blossoms have a pleasant look. But in a good season, when the fruit is ripe, the groves have a magnificently rich appearance. Rows upon rows of yellow fruit look like lines of golden apples. Most people are extravagantly fond of them ”

“ The narrow winding road crosses many a mustard field, and many a mango forest.
It passes by the temple of the village and the market at the river landing-place.
I stopped by this hut, I do not know why.
Years ago it was a day of breezy March when the murmur of the spring was languorous, and the mango blossoms were dropping on the dust.
The rippling water leapt and licked the brass vessel that stood on the landing-step.
I think of that day of breezy March, I do not know why.
Shadows are deepening and cattle returning to their folds. ”

“ Miles of rich lands, once clothed with luxuriant crops of rice, indigo, and waving grain, are now barren reaches of burning sand. The bleached skeletons of mango, jackfruit, and other trees, stretch out their leafless and lifeless branches, to remind the spectator of the time when their foliage rustled in the breeze, when their lusty limbs bore rich clusters of luscious fruit, and when the din of the bazaar resounded beneath their welcome shade. ”

“ It is when the sun has attained its greatest height that such scenes should be viewed: then the dense splendid foliage of the mango hides the ground with its darkest shade, whilst the upper branches are rendered from the profusion of light of the most brilliant green. In the temperate zones the case is different—the vegetation there is not so dark or so rich, and hence the rays of the declining sun, tinged of a red, purple, or bright yellow colour, add most to the beauties of those climes. ”

“ In the West Indies, as far as I have seen, the Mango has not yet reached the huge size of its ancestors in Hindostan. There—to judge, at least, from photographs—the Mango must be indeed the queen of trees; growing to the size of the largest English oak, and keeping always the round oak-like form. Rich in resplendent foliage, and still more rich in fruit, the tree easily became encircled with an atmosphere of myth in the fancy of the imaginative Hindoo. ”

“ The fruits are simply wonderful in variety and perfection. The glowing sun and ardent breath of the tropics ask little aid from the hand of man in perfecting their products. One eats eggs, custard and butter off the trees.
The mango is nearly as abundant and prolific as the banana in some places. It grows on a very handsome tree, the leaves being long, lanceolate, polished, and hanging in dense masses of dark-green foliage. In size it is like a full-grown apple tree. The fruit is about the size of an egg plum, and when ripe is yellow in colour and very juicy. ”

“ They appear hideous, and in their solitary flight resemble a cloak in motion, chiefly and awkwardly perching upon the mango tree, the fruit of which they eat, breaking down the smaller branches, till they light upon such as are able to bear their weight. ”

“ I can quite understand anyone, whose first experience of a mango is that of an inferior fruit, full of fibre, and having a distinctly disagreeable flavour, condemning the particular fruit, but because there are inferior fruits one should not condemn the whole without knowing what a really good mango is like. ”

“ The mango, like its more fastidious neighbour the durian, is one of Nature’s voluptuous productions, of which we have no representative in our gardens, although, so far us the mango is concerned, it might be cultivated successfully in our hothouses with but little more trouble and expense than that which attends the culture of pine-apples or bananas. There are varieties which fruit freely when only five or six feet high, and when only three or four years old ”

“ The mango-trees were loaded with ripe fruit, and attracted many small tanagers and paroquets. I now ate the mango for the first time, and soon got to like it very much. It is not generally eaten in Pará except by the Negroes, who seem very fond of it, to judge by the certainty with which every fruit disappeared the moment it became ripe. There seems to be scarcely an animal that is not fond of it,—cattle, sheep, pigs, ducks, and fowls, all rush to secure every one that falls. ”

“ There is a strong suggestion of turpentine about the mango; usually a taste for the fruit has to be cultivated. It has been described as tasting like a “ball of cotton soaked in turpentine and molasses.” In the tropics the mango is a staple article of food during the hot months, more than 130 varieties being cultivated in India alone. In some of the poorer varieties the pulp is full of fiber. The mango is extensively cultivated in the West Indies and more sparsely in southern Florida and California. The tree is an evergreen, grows from 30 to 40 feet high, and has a wealth of foliage. ”

“ You are ready to agree with the East Indian maxim that a mango never should be eaten except in a tub of water. You cannot help beginning with another; but let it be small, or you will be likely to inquire if you may not divide your second with a friend. The fruit is of about the same color inside as the muskmelon, but it is harder, though not tough, not disagreeably sweet; juicy, nutritious. We began to receive them at Hong Kong in May, from Manila, where they are in perfection. ”

“ During the middle of the last century, when large coffee estates nestled in the hills of Pinar del Rio, the mango, with its grateful shade and luscious fruit, indicated the home or summer residence of the owner. Today, of the house only broken stones and vine-covered fallen walls remain, but the mangoes, old and gnarled, still stand, while around them have spread extensive groves of younger trees, bearing each year tons of fruit, with none to eat it save the occasional prospector, or the wild hog of the forest. ”

“ Ernest.—I thought, father, that the mango tree only grew on the sea-shore, and in marshy soils?
Father.—You were not mistaken; it is the black mango tree which loves the water. But there is, besides, the red mango, which bears its fruit in bunches, something like our currant bushes. This kind of the mango tree, is found at a considerable distance from the sea, and its wood is used for dyeing red. There is a third sort, which is called the mountain mango, or yellow wood, and this is the kind, whose roots produce the beautiful arches you now see around us. ”

“ The kernel of the mango is of a hot and rather offensive flavour; the poor people, however, collect it, and when dried grind it into flour for bread, which is more wholesome than agreeable; in seasons of scarcity, however, it is a useful addition to the then scanty means of the lower orders of the people. The flavour of the fruit itself differs so much, that no description can be given of the taste of a mango—even the fruit of one tree vary in their flavour. ”

“ OF all Oriental fruits brought to the Occident, the golden mango of India is undoubtedly king. For thousands of years, horticulturists of the Far East, under the direction of native princes, have worked towards its perfection. Just when the seeds were introduced into Cuba, no one knows, but certain it is that so favorable were both soil and climate that the mango today, in the opinion of the natives at least, furnishes the Island its finest fruit. It has so multiplied and spread throughout all sections that it plays an important part in the decoration of the landscape. ”

“ A mango might be designated the unspeakable eatable, for who is qualified to determine the evanescent savours and flavours which a prime specimen of the superb fruit so generously yields? Take of a pear all that is mellow, of a peach all that is luscious, of a strawberry all that is fragrant, of a plum all that is kindly, of an apricot all its aroma, of cream all its smoothness. ”

“ The English gardeners can do much, but they cannot ripen a Number Eleven, and it is too delicate to bear carriage. It must be eaten in the tropics or nowhere. The mango is the size and shape of a swan's egg, of a ruddy yellow colour when ripe, and in flavour like an exceptionally good apricot, with a very slight intimation of resin. The stone is disproportionately large. The flesh adheres to it, and one abandons as hopeless the attempt to eat mangoes with clean lips and fingers. The epicures insist that they should be eaten only in a bath. ”

“ If she be a Hindu, you will probably notice the bright-red mark on her forehead, joining brow to brow, or, in the words of a Persian poet, uniting two Parthian or Tartar bows into Kama's Long-bow. The male mango-hawker is a Deccan Hindu or Musulman gardener who purchases a stock of showy inferior fruit from the wholesale dealers. After the mango season is over he becomes a vendor of Poona figs or Nagpur oranges. ”

“ Dar es Salam was still more delightful than in June. At this time of year it abounds in mangoes of every size and every variety. The mango-tree was long ago imported from India, and is now found wherever Indians are settled in East Africa, whether in British, German, or Portuguese territory. It is certainly a pleasanter immigrant than the low-caste Indian ”

“ The French have taken immense trouble in perfecting this valuable fruit, and have now introduced so many excellent varieties that one crop succeeds another in rotation. The round mango is succeeded by the golden egg, and that by a small purple, while the large long sort seems inexhaustible. Best of all are those specially cultivated by Monseigneur Janssen, Bishop of Axièri, who has raised a super-excellent mango with a very large fruit, and a long stone so thin and flat as to resemble the inner sole of a child's shoe. ”

“ The mangas also are prolific bearers, whose fruit ripens in July and August, a month or so later than the mango. The fruit is roundish, very plump, and with the beak or point of the mango entirely missing. Its color is lemon yellow with a delicate reddish blush, the length about three inches and the weight from five to eight ounces. The skin, rather tough, peels readily, and in eating should be torn down from the stem towards the apex. The same fibre is present as in the mango, while the pulp is very juicy, sweet, slightly aromatic and pleasant in flavor. ”

“ For weeks the natives who have charge of the mangoes live entirely on the fruit, and, as some trees bear in November and some in March, while the main crop comes between, fruit in abundance may easily be obtained during four months of the year; but no native can be induced to plant a mango. A wide-spread superstition has become riveted in the native mind, that if any one plants this tree he will soon die. ”

“ Green peas, or, indeed, vegetables in general, are never served in the plain way in which we see them at our tables, but always in stews or curries. The green mango is used invariably to flavour their several dishes, and, at the proper season, they are peeled, cut, and dried for the year's consumption. They dislike the acid of the lemon in their stews, which is never resorted to when the green mango or tamarind can be procured.
The fruits of India in general estimation with the Natives are the mango and the melon. Mangoes are luscious and enticing fruit ”

“ The solitary mango-tree, in a field of corn, seems to exult in its position-to grow taller and spread wider its branches and rich foliage, in situations where they can be seen to so much advantage. The peepul and bargut trees, which, when entire, are still more ornamental, are everywhere torn to pieces and disfigured by the camels and elephants, buffaloes and bullocks, that feed upon their foliage and tender branches. There are a great many mhowa, tamarind, and other fine trees, upon which they do not feed, to assist the mango in giving beauty to the landscape. ”

“ But, unfortunately, the mango is a fruit that will not keep long in a good condition. It resembles the peach in taste, and is a stone-fruit. It is often as big as a small melon. That brings us to the melons, which are also plentiful in summer. They are far superior to what we get here. However, I must not inflict any more names of fruits on you; suffice it to say that India produces innumerable varieties of seasonal fruits, which do not keep long. All these fruits are available to the poor; the pity is that they never make a meal of these fruits. ”

“ We strolled through the gardens and along green little dams between duck ponds spotted with lily pads, and the men renewed their boyhood by “chucking” rocks into a sumptuous mango tree, bringing down the russet-gold, luscious fruit for an appetizer. I may some day be rash enough to describe the flavor of a mango, or try to ”

“ The central feature of the whole ritual is a wild mango tree, so young that it has never flowered: the men who cut it down, carry it into the village, and dance at the festival, are forbidden to eat mangoes: pigs are killed in order that their dying squeals may move the mango trees to bear fruit: at the end of the ceremonies pieces of young green mangoes are solemnly placed in the mouths of the fasting men and are by them spurted out towards the setting sun in order that the luminary may carry the fragments to every part of the country ”