The crow and the mango tree

Alfredo de Mello

[Ben Antao's recollection about his childhood days in Velim, reminded me of the same predicament, I faced with the crows, during the mango season.

My experience was more expeditive, as a ten-year-old I knew how to fire a shotgun, and I hated the crows, who would swoop into our big chicken coop, and snatch one of the little yellow fluffed brood, which mother hen could not save.

I used to shoot a crow, and hang it in the compound where the chickens, ducks, manila ducks were housed. It was a good warning, and the crows did not attempt to steal the little ones, be it from the foul smell of the carcass, or be it because they recognised a dead crow swinging on twine from roof to roof.

I adopted the same method, during the mango season, and shot a crow, and crucified it on a bamboo pole, which I tied to the main branch of the mango tree. This effectively shooed away other crows.

The following is an excerpt from my MEMOIRS OF GOA and it will remind Goans about the fruits in our home country.]

..."Our garden was full of fruit trees, some of which yielded ripe fruits the year around like papayas, sour sop, a big green fruit with inoffensive spines ("Anona Espinosa") - much appreciated by wildcats ! - and bananas; there were four different types of bananas, that could be gotten at the market, the huge "Moira" types, which are served roasted, ( otherwise indigestible), the saldatti which are long bananas, rosballim (known botanically as Musa sapientum) and sonballim, with different tastes.

Many years later I cam to know and enjoy two other delicious bananas grown in Brazil, called "banana ouro" and " banana prata", small delicious bananas.

Other tropical fruits in Goa made their appearance towards and during summertime, such as custard apples, guavas, which we had in our garden, and sapodilla. The sapodilla is a brown skinned fruit, with delicious white flesh inside, from the chewing gum tree. Of course, the top of the list, was the summer season crop of mangoes , which we ate during April and May.

There are 27 different varieties (1), the most famous being the Malcorada; we regaled ourselves with this tasty fruit in the month of May, available in the markets, especially on the Friday market-place in Mapusa. We loved also the red skinned, and orange fleshed Afonso, and the Fernandina, which was almost white fleshed and somewhat acid, but sweet nonetheless. Of the latter, we had both trees in our compound. We had also a jackfruit tree which yielded enormous 3-4kilo fruits, and naturally coconuts.

"We had twelve cocount trees all planted on the southern side of the tennis court, at a higher level. Incidentally they were from Benaulim, which village supplies the coconut trees to all the plantations in Goa (2).

From the market place our cook brought along java plums, "carandans", sour-sweet "bim-bilim" and "rozavalem". These are the Konkani words for these fruits, as I do not remember what were their equivalents in Portuguese and much less in English. The papayas were relished the year round, and they tasted wonderful, with a few drops of lemon, and a spoonful of sugar.

One of our papaya trees had grown from the cistern that had been hewn, way before our house had running water and was never used, except for housing the septic tank with many compartments which took care of our sewage, and which occupied only a portion of the big hole between the garage and the wing of our house. this papaya tree well watered by the clear liquid, which emanated from the last compartment of the septic tank, was full of ripe papayas, clustered around the stem of the tree.

Mrs. Ines Mascarenhas, the stout mother of our neighbour Diogenes, had come to pay us a visit, and as she was some kind of a relative, she entered our house through the secondary gate, instead of the main gate, where the tennis court was situated. Local gossip commented that she could cast an "evil eye", on something that she envied.

The "evil eye" was a superstition very much ingrained in India, and my father though educated in Europe, and a scientist, was aware of this superstition. Whether true or not, whenever possible, he did not want us exposed to the "evil eye": for instance, he did not want us three boys to walk together downtown, just in case an "evil eye" would be cast on such a trio of healthy boys. Evidently he recalled Virgil's statement "Some evil eye bewitched my tender lambs". Incidentally this "evil eye" superstition is not circumscribed to India alone.

Montaigne in his Essays (Book I) tells us that the ancients maintained that certain women of Scythia, when animated and enraged against anyone, would kill him with their mere glance. It would seem that the imagination, when vehemently stirred, alunches darts that can injure an external object, be it a person, animal or tree.

Reverting to our neighbour Ines, Diogenes' mother, after concluding the neighbourly visit, with a lot of baí faí (3) on her way out, she stopped in front of the papaya tree, and commented how beautiful the tree was with so many fruits. My aunt Delfina, once Dona Ines was out of sight, murmured "Chee !!" (4) and commented to us that she had cast an "evil eye" on the tree, and we only laughed at her ingenuity and superstition.

Great was our astonishment when, the very next day, all the papayas had fallen to the ground, the leaves of the tree became yellowish. Within two days the healthy tree literally dried up and died ! We were awed, because we had never seen anything like it. Papaya trees never die suddenly, they just fade away like old soldiers.

In Konkani the word "Distt" is synonymous with the evil eye. The verb "Distà" means to see. And there were some recognized "Distticars", that is, men who can cast an evil eye. One of them was famous; he was a watch repairer who lived in the Rua Afonso de Albuquerque in Panjim....."



REFERENCES:
(1) Whilst many fruit trees were introduced in India by the Portuguese, from Brazil, the mango is an autoctonous indian fruit tree.

However there is no doubt whatever that the varieties were perfected by the Portuguese by means of grafting.

Grafting is essential for maintaining the intrinsic quality of each variety, and even improving on it. The names of varieties of mangoes in Goa have the following names: Afonsa, Barreto, Bispo, Carreira, Colaço, Costa, D.Bernardo, D. Filipe, Dourada, Derrubada, Fernandina, Filipina, Frias, Ferrâo, Bem-curada, Malcurada, Malagesta, Monserrate, Papel, Papel Branco, Peres, Rebelo, Reinol, Salgada, Salgadinha, Sto.Antonio, Santiago, Sacratina, Tanque, Temudo, Xavier, etc

Incidentally, whilst the varieties of mangoes were transplanted by the Portuguese to their colonies in Africa and Brazil, it must be mentioned that many fruits previously unknown in India, were introduced by the Portuguese in Goa, such as the pineapple, the cashew tree, the guava, papayas and two other fruits known in Portuguese as "duriâo", and "matombeira" (Bragança
Pereira, "Etnografia da India Portuguesa", pages 410-11, and page 413)

(2) The village of Benaulim (Salcete) provides coconut trees to all the plantations in Goa (Brangança Pereira, "Etnografia da India Portuguesa" 1923)

(3)Baí faí: This is a Konkani expression, meaning "with lots of exaggerated compliments".

(4)Chee, is a Konkani exclamation of disapproval, or disgust.

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Sorry, folks - from the mango tree, I drifted to other fruits, and papayas, and then to the hallowed "Dist"...

Best wishes to all,
Alfredo de Mello
July 24, 1999