ODERIFEROUS BURMA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 283, 26 August 1919, Page 5

ODERIFEROUS BURMA

'A LAND OF CURIOUS SMELLS. Burma (says "Chambers's Jcurnal" ,ar June), a land in which smells abound, grows a large number of trees ana plants unknown in the rest of the Indian Empire (although some part-j of India have a very similar climate), which in many cases yield fruit objectionable in tnsta and smell to Europeans, yet highly appreciated by Burmans. First and foremost is tho durian, which is largely cultivated in Sumatra, 'Java, Celebes, the Philippines, tho Malay Peninsula, Burma, and Siam. Alfred Russell Wallaco says it is worth a trip to the East merely lo eat tlie durian, and in the 'sixties such a trip was not the easy matter it has since boeome, for then tliero was nt> overland route, and to gp East one had to voyage round the Cape of Good Hope. Wallaco describes the durian as tasting liko an aimond-flnvoured custard, intermingled with wails of cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry, and other incongruities. The smell of the durian when not fresh has been : compared to that of rotten onions or putrid animal matter If one is brought into a room the whole houso will smell of it for many hours afterwards, and anybody who has partaken of it can be recognised as onco as liaving done so if he goes to another, house. The tree is a very handsome one, attaining a height of 70ft to £oft., and by some is said to bear a resemblance to the elm. The fruit is epherical, about the size of a coconut, and has a hard external shell vith strong tubercles, terminating in sharp paints.' Durians will not grow north of Tenasf-erini, in Burma, and even there do not thrive well if planted. at, any great distance from the sea. The durian is, liowever, only one of numerous curiously smtlling "productions of Burma, which 'will not grow in India. Thero ib, besides the danien fruit, a Bpwies oi nut, of which the Burmese are immoderately fond, and to which they attribute marked digestive and medicinal qualities. To Europeans it smells even more offensively, and ionger, than the durian. A person who has eaten danien at dinner can he distinguished from others wherever he goes for ai least 43 hours afterwards; and tho stalls in the markets where it is sold can bu smelt at a distance of at least 50ft. To bo as popular as it is this peculiar fruit must surely possess some of the digestivt. properties claimed for it. Why it should not grow in India we have never heard explained. Then there is the yv/eyo, another Burma-grown fruit with an objectionable smell, which is highly valued as medicine for most women's, complaints. We have heard that it grows in Java, though not in India. It is, as a rule, used only for medicinal purposes, and not, like tho other two, as a habitual and agreeable food. Garlic and onions are more popular in Spa:n and Italy than in more northern countries. There they form the relishes of common, everyday life. Burmans would seem to require more powerful condiments, and though they uso both onions and garlic as food, they, also partake of asafoetida, which possesses an odour somowhat similar to garlic, but stronger, more fetid, and generally more disagreeable to European noses. It would seem as if there were a sort of human instinct guiding national tastes blindly to plants and substances capable of yielding in the bndy similar chemical' compounds. Garlic-smelling compounds are extensively diffused throughout the vegetnV" kingdom r.f the whole world, supplying in a greater or less degree the pecii'iar taste for those compounds of sulphur and allyl which universally prevn'is amongst mankind. Offensive smells from decaying matter or the decomposition of animal ,and vegetable subslnnces exist in all countries —in some worse than in others. Burma has the "odorous" distinction of growing plants wlii'di stink naturally "to a greater extent than most other localities can boa-t, and may, therefore, be truly described as a land of curious smells.

At Clerkenwell Police Court Mr. S.vinmons, the Magistrate, in dealing with a young soldier, who was charged with tiring drunk, said: "I suppose we must ant create a new offence at these Courts, hut I should be inclined to charge you that, being a Britisher, you were unablo to carry your drink. Why do not you try to bo a man?"