The Memoirs of Bābur 932.12
The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 932.12
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932.12.1
The coco-nut palm (P. _nārgīl_, _Cocos nucifera_) is another. An `Arab gives it Arabic form[1867] and says _nārjīl_; Hindūstān people say _nālīr_, seemingly by popular error.[1868] Its fruit is the Hindī-nut from which black spoons (_qarā qāshūq_) are made and the larger ones of which serve for guitar-bodies. The coco-palm has general resemblance to the date-palm, but has more, and more glistening leaves. Like the walnut, the coco-nut has a green outer husk; but its husk is of fibre on fibre. All ropes for ships and boats and also cord for sewing boat-seams are heard of as made from these husks. The nut, when stripped of its husk, near one end shews a triangle of hollows, two of which are solid, the third a nothing (_būsh_), easily pierced. Before the kernel forms, there is fluid inside; people pierce the soft hollow and drink this; it tastes like date-palm cheese in solution, and is not bad.
932.12.2
The (Sans.) _tāṛ_ (_Borassus flabelliformis_, the Palmyra-palm) is another. Its branches (_i.e._ leaves) also are quite at its top. Just as [Sidenote: Fol. 286.] with the date-palm, people hang a pot on it, take its juice and drink it. They call this liquor _tāṛī_;[1869] it is said to be more exhilarating than date liquor. For about a yard along its branches (_i.e._ leaf-stems)[1870] there are no leaves; above this, at the tip of the branch (stem), 30 or 40 open out like the spread palm of the hand, all from one place. These leaves approach a yard in length. People often write Hindī characters on them after the fashion of account rolls (_daftar yūsūnlūq_).
932.12.3
The orange (Ar. _nāranj_, _Citrus aurantium_) and orange-like fruits are others of Hindūstān.[1871] Oranges grow well in the Lamghānāt, Bajaur and Sawād. The Lamghānāt one is smallish, has a navel,[1872] is very agreeable, fragile and juicy. It is not at all like the orange of Khurāsān and those parts, being so fragile that many spoil before reaching Kābul from the Lamghānāt which may be 13-14 _yīghāch_ (65-70 miles), while the Astarābād orange, by reason of its thick skin and scant juice, carries with [Sidenote: Fol. 286b.] less damage from there to Samarkand, some 270-280 _yīghāch_.[1873] The Bajaur orange is about as large as a quince, very juicy and more acid than other oranges. Khwāja Kalān once said to me, "We counted the oranges gathered from a single tree of this sort in Bajaur and it mounted up to 7,000." It had been always in my mind that the word _nāranj_ was an Arabic form;[1874] it would seem to be really so, since every-one in Bajaur and Sawād says (P.) _nārang_.[1875] The lime (B. _līmū_, _C. acida_) is another. It is very plentiful, about the size of a hen's egg, and of the same shape. If a person poisoned drink the water in which its fibres have been boiled, danger is averted.[1876]
932.12.4
The citron (P. _turunj_,[1877] _C. medica_) is another of the fruits resembling the orange. Bajaurīs and Sawādīs call it _bālang_ and hence give the name _bālang-marabbā_ to its marmalade (_marabbā_) confiture. In Hindūstān people call the _turunj bajaurī_.[1878] There are two kinds of _turunj_: one is sweet, flavourless and nauseating, of no use for eating but with peel that may be good for marmalade; it has the same sickening sweetness as the Lamghānāt _turunj_; the other, that of Hindūstān and Bajaur, is acid, quite deliciously acid, and makes excellent sherbet, well-flavoured, and wholesome drinking. Its size may be that of the Khusrawī melon; it has a thick skin, wrinkled and uneven, with one end thinner and beaked. It is of a deeper yellow than the orange (_nāranj_). Its tree has no trunk, is rather low, grows in bushes, and has a larger [Sidenote: Fol. 287.] leaf than the orange. The _sangtāra_[1879] is another fruit resembling the orange (_nāranj_). It is like the citron (_turunj_) in colour and form, but has both ends of its skin level;[1880] also it is not rough and is somewhat the smaller fruit. Its tree is large, as large as the apricot (_aūrūq_), with a leaf like the orange's. It is a deliciously acid fruit, making a very pleasant and wholesome sherbet. Like the lime it is a powerful stomachic, but not weakening like the orange (_nāranj_).
932.12.5
The large lime which they call (H.) _gal-gal_[1881] in Hindūstān is another fruit resembling the orange. It has the shape of a goose's egg, but unlike that egg, does not taper to the ends. Its skin is smooth like the _sangtāra's_; it is remarkably juicy. The (H.) _jānbīrī_ lime[1882] is another orange-like fruit. It is orange-shaped and, though yellow, not orange-yellow. It smells like the citron (_turunj_); it too is deliciously acid. The (Sans.) _sadā-fal_ (_phal_)[1883] is another orange-like fruit. This is pear-shaped, colours like the quince, ripens sweet, but not to the sickly-sweetness of the orange (_nāranj_). The _amrd-fal_ (sic. Ḥai. MS.—Sans. _amrit-phal_)[1884] is another orange-like fruit. The lemon (H. _karnā_, _C. limonum_) is another fruit resembling the orange (_nāranj_); it may be as large as the _gal-gal_ and is also acid. The (Sans.) _amal-bīd_[1885] is another fruit resembling the orange. After three years (in Hindūstān), it was first seen to-day.[1886] They say a needle melts away if put inside it,[1887] either from its acidity [Sidenote: Fol. 287b.] or some other property. It is as acid, perhaps, as the citron and lemon (_turunj_ and _līmū_).[1888] (_m. Vegetable products of Hindūstān:—Flowers._)
932.12.6
In Hindūstān there is great variety of flowers. One is the (D.) _jāsūn_ (_Hibiscus rosa sinensis_), which some Hindūstānīs call (Hindī) _gaẕhal_.[1889] *It is not a grass (_giyāh_); its tree (is in stems like the bush of the red-rose; it) is rather taller than the bush of the red-rose.[1890]* The flower of the _jāsūn_ is fuller in colour than that of the pomegranate, and may be of the size of the red-rose, but, the red-rose, when its bud has grown, opens simply, whereas, when the _jāsūn_-bud opens, a stem on which other petals grow, is seen like a heart amongst its expanded petals. Though the two are parts of the one flower, yet the outcome of the lengthening and thinning of that stem-like heart of the first-opened petals gives the semblance of two flowers.[1891] It is not a common matter. The beautifully coloured flowers look very well on the tree, but they do not last long; they fade in just one day. The _jāsūn_ blossoms very well through the four months of the rains; it seems indeed to flower all through the year; with this profusion, however, it gives no perfume.
932.12.7
The (H.) _kanīr_ (_Nerium odorum_, the oleander)[1892] is another. It grows both red and white. Like the peach-flower, it is five petalled. It is like the peach-bloom (in colour?), but opens 14 or 15 flowers from one place, so that seen from a distance, they look like one great flower. The oleander-bush is taller than the rose-bush. The red oleander has a sort of scent, faint and agreeable. (Like the _jāsūn_,) it also blooms well and profusely in the [Sidenote: Fol. 288.] rains, and it also is had through most of the year. The (H.) (_kīūrā_) (_Pandanus odoratissimus_, the screw-pine) is another.[1893] It has a very agreeable perfume.[1894] Musk has the defect of being dry; this may be called moist musk—a very agreeable perfume. The tree's singular appearance notwithstanding, it has flowers perhaps 1-1/2 to 2 _qārīsh_ (13-1/2 to 18 inches) long. It has long leaves having the character of the reed (P.) _gharau_[1895] and having spines. Of these leaves, while pressed together bud-like, the outer ones are the greener and more spiny; the inner ones are soft and white. In amongst these inner leaves grow things like what belongs to the middle of a flower, and from these things comes the excellent perfume. When the tree first comes up not yet shewing any trunk, it is like the bush (_būta_) of the male-reed,[1896] but with wider and more spiny leaves. What serves it for a trunk is very shapeless, its roots remaining shewn.
932.12.8
The (P.) _yāsman_ (jasmine) is another; the white they call (B.) _champa_.[1897] It is larger and more strongly scented than our _yāsman_-flower. (_n. Seasons of the year._) Again:—whereas there are four seasons in those countries,[1898] there are three in Hindūstān, namely, four months are summer; four are the rains; four are winter. The beginning of their months is from the welcome of the crescent-moons.[1899] Every three years they add a month to the year; if one had been added to the rainy season, the next is added, three years later, to the winter months, the next, in the same way, to the hot months. This is their mode of intercalation.[1900] (_Chait_, _Baisākh_, _Jeṭh_ and [Sidenote: Fol. 288b.] _Asāṛh_) are the hot months, corresponding with the Fish, (Ram, Bull and Twins; _Sāwan_, _Bhādoṅ_, _Kū,ār_ and _Kātik_) are the rainy months, corresponding with the Crab, (Lion, Virgin and Balance; _Aghan_, _Pūs_, _Māgh_ and _Phālgun_) are the cold months, corresponding with the Scorpion, (Archer, Capricorn, and Bucket or Aquarius).