Note 15 — Chapter IV

The balate—also known as “sea slug,” “sea cucumber,” “beche de mer,” and commercially as “trepang”—is a slug (Holothuria edulis) used as food in the Eastern Archipelago and in China, in which country it is regarded as a delicacy by the wealthy classes, and brings from seven to fifty cents a pound in the markets. (See U. S. Gazetteer of Philippine Islands, pp. 482, 483.) Delgado, writing in 1754, says (p. 935) that in Manila the dried balate was usually worth thirty-five to forty (or even more) silver pesos a pico (or pecul; equivalent, in the Philippines, to 137.9 U.S. pounds).