Papaya

“ It would seem that the rubbing is the only treatment which is directly effective. The papāya, which is a very digestible fruit, can hardly be of assistance, but may be eaten from some magical idea of its resemblance to a foetus. ”

“ The PAWPAW is a fruit about the size of a small melon, but of very various shape, the production of a species of palm-tree (carica papaya) , which grows in tropical climates, both of the eastern and western parts of the world.
The tree is twenty feet and upwards in height; naked almost to the summit; and marked, through its whole length, with the scars of fallen leaves. Its leaves are on foot-stalks two feet in length, and deeply divided into seven, nine, or eleven large lobes. The flowers are axillary, white, and sweet scented. ”

“ In the N.W. Provinces it is called by the native gardeners aranḍ-kharbūza, 'castor-oil-tree-melon,' no doubt from the superficial resemblance of its foliage to that of the Palma Christi. According to Moodeen Sheriff it has a Perso-Arabic name 'anbah-i-Hindī; in Canarese it is called P'arangi-haṇṇu or -mara ('Frank or Portuguese fruit, tree') . The name papaya according to Oviedo as quoted by Littré ("Oviedo, t. l. p. 333, Madrid, 1851,"—we cannot find it in Ramusio) was that used in Cuba, whilst the Carib name was ababai. ”

“ The sonnets in this collection are rather poems in fourteen lines than sonnets.
Page 119.
The slim papaya ripens, etc.
Papaya—papaw, custard-apple. Flint, in his excellent work on the Geography and History of the Western States, thus describes this tree and its fruit:
"A papaw-shrub hanging full of fruits, of a size and weight so disproportioned to the stem, and from under long and rich-looking leaves, of the same yellow with the ripened fruit, and of an African luxuriance of growth, is to us one of the richest spectacles that we have ever contemplated in the array of the woods. ”

“ A patch of pohas planted in a corner of a garden, will grow and yield a bountiful supply of fruit almost without cultivation.
Pineapples are at home on these Islands; a small plot planted with the best varieties of this king of fruits will keep the table supplied the year round.
Another valuable fruit indigenous to this country is the Papaia (Carica papaya) . This fine fruit can be raised in enormous quantities and is a most fattening food for pigs and chickens. The tree fruits in eight or nine months from the seed, and thence forward for years it yields ripe fruit every 39 month in the year. ”

“ The large taro, which grows to a height of 7 or 8 feet, and is known as the “kalafai,” may be the same as the “via kana” of Fiji (Cyrtosperma edulis) . I cannot, however, speak with any authority on this subject, as I collected no specimens.
[55] Traders occasionally introduce foreign vegetables. Gorai, the Shortland chief, grows a little maize in one of his plantations.
Amongst the fruit-trees grown by the natives of Bougainville Straits in their plantations are the Papaw-tree (Carica Papaya) : a [85] species of Lime which the Alu chief grows in his extensive cultivated patches ”

“ The government of Bolivia settles accounts with the church for the Indians out of the annual income of $13,464. The Indians pay this tax in cotton table cloths, sheets, hamacs, towels, ponchos, and pieces of cotton goods made by their own hands. They cultivate maize and coffee, tobacco, yuca, oranges, plantains, lemons, and papayas; cocoa grows wild along the rivers; rice is raised in small quantities. ”

“ One never knows what factor will thaw the ice. Next morning, upon the breakfast tray it was the golden sickle of the papaia that cut my controls and loosed the gate of tears. Why the papaia? Why not the coco palms, the fragrance of the plumeria, the clinging caress of the ilima lei, the sight of the long garden beneath its palms, or, above all, the wet eyes of Jack’s friends and mine? Why the mild breakfast melon from the carven papaia tree? I do not know. But thence on I was myself again, myself in my own Hawaii, aware of the compensations of life. ”

“ The papaw has the family name, custard-apple, from its unusual fruit, whose flesh is soft and yellow, like custard. The shape suggests that of a banana. The fruits hang in clusters and their pulp is enclosed in thick dark brown skin, wrinkled, sometimes shapeless, three to five inches long. Dead ripe, the flesh becomes almost transparent, fragrant, sweet, rather insipid, surrounding flat, wrinkled seeds an inch long. The fruit is gathered and sold in local markets from forests of these papaws which grow under taller trees in the alluvial bottom lands of the Mississippi Valley. ”

“ The land, too, produces no maize, nor are there any trees. There is another lake near it of the same kind. Further on there are great mountains, and the Spaniards do not know what there is on the other side of them.
There are other villages on the road to this city, but it seems unnecessary to enumerate them, having already mentioned the principal ones. With regard to this city of Pasto, I have to say that no city or town in the whole government of Popayan has so many Indians subject to it, and it even has more than Quito and other places in Peru. ”

“ The papaw is a large herbaceous plant rather than a tree. It has a sort of juicy trunk terminated by a tuft of leaves, and the fruit, which is like a melon, hangs down under the leaves.1464 It is now grown in all tropical countries, even as far as thirty to thirty-two degrees of latitude. It is easily naturalized outside plantations. This is one reason why it has been said, and people still say that it is a native of Asia or of Africa, whereas Robert Brown and I proved in 1848 and 1855 its American origin.1465 I repeat the arguments against its supposed origin in the eastern hemisphere. ”

“ The freshness of the early morning is succeeded by dry heat as the sun rises higher and higher with torrid beams. We see the natives quench their thirst with the milk of green cocoanuts, but we dare not indulge in its use. The pampas grass waves and glistens in the sunlight; enormous ant-hills are seen surrounding dead stumps or standing unsupported on level plains; green parrots and gorgeous butterflies chase each other unmindful of the heat, and toward noon we see the famous rock and huge gopuras of Trichinopoly across the rice fields. ”

“ From the tops of the mountains, towards Timana, there is a different language; and there are many other languages in the two chains of mountains as far as Quito. Of the twenty leagues between Popayan and Lili, the ten nearest Popayan are over a cold country, where a fire is necessary; and the ten towards Lili are over a warm country, with almost the climate of Panama. The whole is a very beautiful land, with plains, rivers full of fish, and abundant hunting of deer and rabbits. This land, now laid waste, was a most populous and fertile country, abounding in maize, fruit, and ducks. ”

“ Soon after this, Papeiha one day heard shrieking and shouting and wild roars as of men in a frenzy. He saw crowds of people round the gods offering food to them; the priests with faces blackened with charcoal and with bodies painted with stripes of red and yellow, the warriors with great waving head-dresses of birds' feathers and white sea-shells. Papeiha, without taking any thought of the peril that he rushed into, went into the midst of the people and said:
"Why do you act so foolishly? Why do you take a log of wood and carve it, and then offer it food? It is only fit to be burned. ”

“ The country we pass through is very uniform, “playas” and “tierras disbarrancandas,” and bits of pampa land, alternating with each other. There are no “barbaros” hereabouts, and I should say the lands from Exaltacion to Trinidad would be very valuable for emigration; climate splendid, land of excellent quality for the production of crops of sugar-cane, rice, maize, plantains, and every other description of tropical produce, together with capital pampas for cattle rearing. The bag to-day was splendid—two cabeça secas, a very large stork, called a “bata,” four ducks, and a pava ”

“ But Pago Pago harbor is large and deep. What is still better, it is surrounded by bluffs and mountains that will shelter a big fleet against even the fury of a typhoon.
Most of the islands are covered with a dense vegetation, tropical and richly colored. There is an abundance of hardwood272 trees, but the breadfruit, banana, and cocoa-palm are the most useful. The breadfruit-tree grows wild, but it is also cultivated. The fruit is about the size of an ordinary cantaloupe. In some species the fruit is filled with seeds nearly as large as chestnuts and these are sometimes eaten. ”

“ Never have we read nor heard any adequate description of a papaia tree; but it is the most remarkable we have ever seen. The trunks of our papaias are six or seven inches in diameter, rise perfectly straight without a branch nearly to the top, where the fruit clusters thick and close around the carven hole, for so the ash-colored wood appears with its indented markings. ”

“ But quite apart from such external marks of dignity, the Pawang is a person of very real significance. In all agricultural operations, such as sowing, reaping, irrigation works, and the clearing of jungle for planting, in fishing at sea, in prospecting for minerals, and in cases of sickness, his assistance is invoked. He is entitled by custom to certain small fees; thus, after a good harvest he is allowed, in some villages, five gantangs of padi, one gantang of rice (bĕras) , and two chupaks of ĕmping (a preparation of rice and cocoa-nut made into a sort of sweetmeat) from each householder. ”

“ The fruit of several species of Passiflora (passion-fruit) is valued on account of the cooling and refreshing pulp surrounding the seeds; the large-fruited kind, known as grenadilla, being specially prized. The very different-looking papaw is now everywhere cultivated in the tropics for its large fruit, which, though insipid, is cooling and antiseptic. ”

“ Pappus of Alexandria, a Greek geometer of the third or fourth century, author of “Mathematical Collections,” in eight books, of which the first and second have been lost.
Papuans, the name of the members of the negro race inhabiting certain islands of Oceania, including New Guinea, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Fiji Islands, &c.
Papy`rus, the Greek name of the Egyptian papu, is a kind of sedge growing 10 ft. high, with a soft triangular stem, the pith of which is easily split into ribbons, found still in Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, &c. ”

“ There are several species of this genus in South America, but none more beautiful than the “patawa.” It is a palm with a straight smooth stem, and pinnate leaves—the stem being sixty feet in height, and about a foot in diameter. The stem becomes smooth only in old trees. In the young ones, and even in those that stand in a thick shady forest, it presents a very shaggy appearance, and is completely hidden by the bases of the old leaves that have decayed and fallen off. ”

“ The trees are of little value, except the Gurjun, and "Kistooma," a species of Bradleia, which was stacked extensively, being used for building purposes. The papaw* [The Papaw tree is said to have the curious property of rendering tough meat tender, when hung under its leaves, or touched with the juice; this hastening the process of decay. With this fact, well-known in the West Indies, I never found a person in the East acquainted.] is abundantly cultivated, and its great gourd-like fruit is eaten (called "Papita" or "Chinaman") ”

“ The mild Hindoo, however, who has cultivated the papaw (or papai to adopt the Anglo-Indian title) for centuries, and likewise wishes to avoid the cultivation of unprofitable male plants, seeks by ceremonies to counteract the bias of the plant in favour of masculine attributes. Without the instigation or knowledge of man or boy, a maiden, pure and undefiled, takes a ripe fruit from a tree at a certain phase of the moon, and plants the seed in accordance with more or less elaborate ritual. The belief prevails that these observances procure an overwhelming majority of the female element. ”

“ In collecting the root, the poayero, for so the collector of poaya is called, grasps in one handful if he can, all the stems of a clump, pushing under it obliquely into the soil a pointed stick to which he gives a see-saw motion. A lump of earth enclosing the roots is thus raised; and, if the operation has been well performed, those of the whole clump are got up almost unbroken. The poayero shakes off adhering soil, places the roots in a large bag which he carries with him, and goes on to seek other clumps. A good collector may thus get as much as 30 lb. ”

“ The papaw tree attains a much larger size, and the fruit arrives at greater perfection, in the low grounds of the Arkansa, than on the Missouri, Ohio, and Upper Mississippi, where it is also common. The papaws fall to the ground as soon as fully ripe, and are eagerly sought after by the bears, raccoons, oppossum, &c. ”

“ They are unlike any modern [Pg 738] paho except in this particular. In g is depicted a still larger prayer-stick, with two serrate incisions on each side of the continuation of the flattened facet.
Specimens h to m are forms of pahos which I can not identify. They are painted green, generally with black tips, round, flattened, and of small size. Figure n is a part of a paho which closely resembles prayer-sticks found in the cliff houses of Mesa Verde and San Juan valley of northern New Mexico. ”

“ The 1894 expedition was directed chiefly toward work among the Papago Indians in the vaguely defined territory known as Papagueria, lying south of Gila river and west of the Sierra Madre in southwestern Arizona and western Sonora (Mexico) . Outfitting at Tucson early in October, the party moved southward, visiting the known Papago rancherias and seeking others, and thus defining the eastern limits of the Papago country. ”