THE COCOA-NUT PALM, AND ITS USES. 217 



night's drawing ; but the trees thus treated become 1 barren, and yield 

 no fruit. Immediately after collection the toddy is sweet and deli- 

 ciously cool, but in the course of a few hours this is changed for an 

 agreeable acidity. It forms a refreshing drink in this state, but in 

 twenty-four hours becomes quite sour. Toddy, when fermented, is 

 made into arrack, a liquor which, being cheap and fiery, is greatly 

 consumed by the poorer class of Europeans at Bombay, and is the bane 

 of our soldiers and sailors in the presidency town. 



Vinegar is made by allowing the toddy to stand for about a month 

 in earthen jars fitted with covers. The liquid is then carefully strained, 

 and replaced in the jars, in which is thrown a little red pepper, a small 

 piece of the fruit of the gamboge-tree, and a pod of the horseradish, 

 which in the East attains the dimensions of a tree. In about five 

 weeks vinegar of a most excellent quality is the result. Not only 

 spirits and vinegar are made from the juice, but the material known 

 as jaffery, or native sugar, is produced before fermentation by boiling 

 the sap to a syrup with quicklime, when it is roughly crystallized. 

 Large quantities of this are exported, and used for sweetmeats, in the 

 manufacture of which in great variety the natives of India are con- 

 summate adepts. 



The cocoa-nut is consumed in a greater variety of ways than even 

 the sap, and not a portion of it, or of the palm on which it grows, is 

 without its special use. Besides the refreshing drink extracted from 

 the young undeveloped nut, which is also made into a dye, the pulp 

 inside the soft crust is considered a delicacy, and is used in the prepara- 

 tion of various dishes. The kernel, when ripe, is also treated in a 

 variety of ways for food, and forms an important ingredient of curry. 

 Cocoa-nut oil is also extracted from the ripe fruit by the natives with 

 their primitive contrivances, in which bullocks are the motive power. 

 When under European manipulation, iron machinery driven by steam 

 expresses about 2^ gallons from 100 nuts. Besides its more practical 

 and prosaic virtues of supplying food and clothing, the poets of the 

 East have from time immemorial assigned as one of the attributes of 

 the cocoa-nut palm-tree that it "loves to "hear the sound of footsteps 

 and pleasant voices." 



In moderately favorable situations, says a writer, this species of 

 the palm commences bearing fruit at from ten to thirteen years of age, 

 and remains at full maturity for between sixty and eighty years, pro- 

 ducing, on an average, about 100 nuts annually. The tree then begins 

 to deteriorate and fall off in its yield, continuing in this declining con- 

 dition for about twenty years, when it ceases bearing altogether, and 

 dies. It is curious that while in this moribund state the famous " por- 

 cupine-wood " of commerce is obtained from its trunk ; so that even 

 in death the cocoa-nut palm is man's faithful friend, and ministers to 

 his wants. 



Many are the uses to which the tree is put while in maturity. The 



