Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 280

76
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ JANUARY, 1931
11
Candlesticks a pair
1.
3.
-
13. 0. 2. given to him .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..... 1. 0. 0.
14. 0. 2. [NOTES ON DOCUMENT No. 13c.] These entries show that Scattergood had practical experience both of hatching ducks by incubators and of making soy Paddy. Rice in the husk.
[14. TO CURE Hysom.] Hysom there are 3 sorts ; one sort looks black when they (are) caught and another) are small (and) white; and another sort looks red; this last is worse of all.
To cure them, vizt., 1st, the black you must not open, but when you bring them in the boat, if you can keep their mouths downward they will throw out alltheir water, but if you can not, 'twill be no great matter; then put a little allom in water, about 1 of tale weight, in as much water as will boile about 50 of them, and when the water has boiled up two or three times, take them out. Take care not to put too much water, because they themselves will throw out water enough. Then take them out and make a house with bambous, like gratings, about 7 foot from the ground, and put the Hysom with their mouths downward, makeing fire under them to smoke them 3 or 4 days, and then put them in the sun to dry them well and pack them up.
The white sort and the redish sort, they must be first be [sic] open'd to take out their dirt and gutts; then boile them as the other and smoke them and dry them in the sun as the others. When you smoke them you need not put their mouths downwards.
(NOTE ON DOCUMENT No. 14.) Hysom. This, Mr. L. C. Hopkins tells me, is Scattergood's rendering of the Chinese sounds hai-shan (Cantonese, hoi-sham), i.e., bêche-de-mer (trepang, sea-slug, sea-cucumber), the Holothuria edulis. Later on Scattergood gives it the European name, bêche-de-mer, which appears to be an early instance, since the first quotation for the term in the 0.E.D. is of 1814.
The recipe for ouring Hysom is attached to a slip of paper containing a "List of goods procurable at Malacca ” (No. 15), where Scattergood stayed more than once in his voyages to and from China.
(15.)
600
Dragons blood lst sort 20 Peculs 25 to 30 Hysom black
400
6 to 7 Do. white
600 Pepper
6 to 7 Stiok lack Cambodia
9 to 10 150
18 Agala
10
30 Betell Nutt
200
21 to 24 Rattans
2000-2300 at 12 to 13 pr 100 bundles Conshin
600 at 4 to 5 per baharr Sappan
17 to 11 Oanes
30000 at 31 to 4 per 100 Breda de Marr
500 at 14 34300
500 2800 1800 4200 500 2700 300 450 390 3000
Wax
1200 500
.. 18140
&c.
.
2000
[Endorsed) How to oure Heysam and List of Goods procurable at Mallacoa
20140