Chapter UJUNGTANAH to UMBRELLA of U by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

the parish, but, I believe, you are the rector?

(Writing). “The reverend Mister Orzinga U.C.J.—The Upas Clergyman of Java.”

George Colman the Younger.

[1844.—“We landed in the Rajah’s boat at the watering place, near the Upas tree. …”—Here follows an interesting account by Mr Adams, in which he describes how “the mate, a powerful person and of strong constitution, felt so much stupified as to be compelled to withdraw from his position on the tree.”—Capt. Sir E. Belcher, Narr. of the Voyage of H.M.S. Samarang, i. 180 seqq.]

1868.—“The Church of Ireland offers to us, indeed, a great question, but even that question is but one of a group of questions. There is the Church of Ireland, there is the land of Ireland, there is the education of Ireland … they are all so many branches from one trunk, and that trunk is the Tree of what is called Protestant ascendancy. … We therefore aim at the destruction of that system of ascendancy, which, though it has been crippled and curtailed by former measures, yet still must be allowed to exist; it is still there like a tall tree of noxious growth, lifting its head to heaven, and darkening and poisoning the land as far as its shadow can extend; it is still there, gentlemen, and now at length the day has come when, as we hope, the axe has been laid to the root of that tree, and it nods and quivers from its top to its base. …”—Mr. GLADSTONE’S Speech at Wigan, Oct. 23. In this quotation the orator indicates the Upas tree without naming it. The name was supplied by some commentators referring to this indication at a later date:

1873.—“It was perfectly certain that a man who possessed a great deal of imagination might, if he stayed out sufficiently long at night, staring at a small star, persuade himself next morning that he had seen a great comet; and it was equally certain that such a man, if he stared long enough at a bush, might persuade himself that he had seen a branch of the Upas Tree.” —Speech of Lord EDMOND FITZMAURICE on the 2nd reading of the University Education (Ireland) Bill, March 3.

„“It was to regain office, to satisfy the Irish irreconcilables, to secure the Pope’s brass band, and not to pursue ‘the glorious traditions of English Liberalism,’ that Mr. Gladstone struck his two blows at the Upas tree.”—Mr. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, in Fort. Rev. Sept. pp. 289–90.

1876.—“… the Upas-tree superstition.” —Contemp. Rev. May.

1880.—“Lord Crichton, M.P. … last night said … there was one topic which was holding all their minds at present … what was this conspiracy which, like the Upas-tree of fable, was spreading over the land, and poisoning it? …”—In St. James’s Gazette, Nov. 11, p. 7.

1885.—“The dread Upas dropped its fruits.

“Beneath the shady canopy of this tall fig no native will, if he knows it, dare to rest, nor will be pass between its stem and the wind, so strong is his belief in its evil influence.

“In the centre of a tea estate, not far off from my encampment, stood, because no one could be found daring enough to cut it down, an immense specimen, which had long been a nuisance to the proprietor on account of the lightning every now and then striking off, to the damage of the shrubs below, large branches, which none of his servants could be induced to remove. One day, having been pitchforked together and burned, they were considered disposed of: but next morning the whole of his labourers awoke, to their intense alarm, afflicted with a painful eruption. … It was then remembered that the smoke of the burning branches had been blown by the wind through the village. …” (Two Chinamen were engaged to cut down and remove the tree, and did not suffer; it was ascertained that they had smeared their bodies with coco-nut oil.)—H. O. Forbes, A Naturalist’s Wanderings, 112–113.

[Mr. Bent (Southern Arabia, 72, 89) tells a similar story about the collection of frankincense, and suggests that it was based on the custom of employing slaves in this work, and on an interpretation of the name Hadrimaut, said to mean ‘valley of death.’]