780. In Cochin-China the vegetable productions are similar to those of corresponding latitudes in India. The earth-nut, or A'rachis hypogï¾µ'a, the yam, the maize, and the cocoa-nut, with rice, form the principal articles of food. Near Touran there is an extensive burying-ground among the sand-hills, close to the shore. The tombs consist of mere tumuli of loose sand, surrounded by a circular trench. A great number of the graves were open; for, it seems, it is the custom of the Cochin Chinese, after the body has been three years interred, to disinhume the bones and remove them to another situation, close to their dwellings : the ground in which they are there deposited being in a great measure viewed as a place of worship. (Ibid., p. 237.)
