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Show ( I 10 ) A fpaci~us plain extends its upland fcene, Rocks rife on rocks, and fountains gufh between ; Soft zephyrs blow, eternal fummers reign, And 1howers prolific blefs the foil,---in vain! -N 0 fpicy nutmeg fcents the vernal gales, 2 2 5 Nor towering plaintain iliades the mid-day vales; No graffy mantle hides the fable hills, No Howery chaplet crowns the trickling rills ; Nor tufted mofs, nor leathery lichen creeps In ruffet tape.lhy o'er the crumbling fl:eeps. 2 3 o -No fl:ep retreating, on the fand imprefs'd, Invites the vi:Gt of a fecond guefi; No refluent fin the unpeopled fiream divides, No revolant pinion cleaves the airy tides ; Nor handed moles, nor beaked worms return, That 1nining pafs the irremeable bourn.-Fierce in dread :Glence on the blafied heath Fell UPAS fits, the HYDRA-TREE of death. 235 Upas. I. 238. There is a poifon-tree in the iliand of Java, which is faid by its effluvia to have depopulated the country for 12 or 14 miles round the place of its growth. ( I I I ) Lo! frotn one root, the envenom' d foil below, A thoufand vegetative ferpents grow ; In ihining rays the fcaly monfl:er fpreads O'er ten fquare leagues his far-diverging heads; Or in one trunk entwifis his tangled form, Looks o'er the clouds, and hi:lfes in the fl:onn. Steep' d in fell poifon, as his iliarp teeth part, A thoufand tongues in quick vibration dart ; Snatch the proud Eagle towering o'er the heath, Or pounce the Lion, as he .ll:alks beneath ; Or flrew, as tnadhall' d hofis contend in vain, With human 1keletons the whiten' d plain. 245 It is called, in the Malayan language, Bohon-U pas ; with the juice.of.it the mofl: poifonous arrows are prepated; and, to gain this, the condemned cnmtnals are fent to the tree with proper direction both to get the juice and to fecure themfelves from t~c malignant exhalations of the tree ; and are pardoned if they br~ng back a ce.rtatn quantity of the poifon. But by the regifl:ers there kept, not one m fou~ are fmd to return. Not only animals of all kinds, both quadrupeds, fi01, and btrds, but. all kinds of vegetables alfo are defl:royed by the effluvia of the noxious tree; fo that, m a difhiCl: of 12 or 14 mil es round it, the face of the earth is quite barren and rocky . intermixed only with the fkeletons of men and animals, affording a fcene of melan choly beyond what poets have defcribed or painters delineated .. Two younger trees of its own fpeci es are faid to grow near it. See London Magazme for 1784 o.r 178.3. Tranflated from a defcription of the poifon-trcc of the ifland of Java, wntten 111 Dutch by N . P. Foereh. For a further~account of it, fe~ a note at the end of the work. |