or CASHEL, a town of Ireland in the county of Tipperary, and province of Munster, with an archbishop's see. W. Long. 7. 36. N. Lat. 52. 16.

CASHEW-NUT: See ANACARDIUM. This nut grows on the end of the fruit of the Anacardium tree, and is quite bare, of the exact figure of a hare's or sheep's kidney; it is about an inch long, containing within it a large white kernel of a fine taste, which is roasted and eaten. The fruit is generally of a yellow colour, as large as an orange; is very stringy; and full of rough, attritent, but pleasant juice, which in America is frequently used, like that of lemons with us, in making punch. The outer shell of the nut is of an ash colour, and very smooth; under this outer rind, is another which covers the kernel; between them is a thick black inflammable oil which is very caustic. When the West India young ladies fancy themselves too much tanned by the scorching rays of the sun, they gently scrape off the thin outside of the stone, and then rub their faces all over with the stone. Their faces immediately swell and grow black; and the skin being poisoned by the caustic oil above mentioned, will, in the space of five or six days, come entirely off in large flakes, so that they cannot appear in public in less than a fortnight; by which time the new skin looks as fair as that of a new-born child. The negroes in Brazil cure themselves effectually of disorders in the stomach, by eating of the yellow fruit of this tree, the juice of which, being acid, cuts the thick tough humours which obstructed the free circulation of the blood, and thus removes the complaint. This cure, however, is not voluntary: for their masters, the Portuguese, deny them any other sustenance; and, letting them loose to the woods, where the cashew-nuts grow in great abundance, leave it in their option to perish by famine, or sustain themselves with this fruit.