1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 213 



Upon breaking off the stalk very close, produces one 

 drop of a milky liquor, resembling the juice of our figs, 

 of which the tree is indeed a species. This liquor 

 the women collect into a small quantity of cocoa-nut 

 water : to prepare a gill of cocoa-nut water will re- 

 quire between three and four quarts of these little figs. 

 When a sufficient quantity is prepared, the leaves of 

 the Eton are well wetted in it, and then laid upon a 

 plantain leaf, where they are turned about till they 

 become more and more flaccid, and then the}^ are 

 gently squeezed, gradually increasing the pressure, 

 but so as not to break them ; as the flaccidity in- 

 creases, and they become spungy, they are supplied 

 with more of the liquor ; in about five minutes the 

 colour begins to appear upon the veins of the leaves, 

 and in about ten or a little more, they are perfectly 

 saturated with it : they are then squeezed, with as 

 much force as can be applied, and the liquor strained 

 at the same time that it is expressed. 



For this purpose, the boys prepare a large quan- 

 tity of the Moo, by drawing it between their teeth, 

 or two little sticks, till it is freed from the green bark 

 and the branny substance that lies under it, and a 

 thin web of the fibres onlv remains ; in this the leaves 

 of the Etou are inveloped, and through these the 

 juice which they contain is strained as it is forced out. 

 As the leaves are not succulent, little more juice is 

 pressed out of them than they have imbibed : when 

 they have been once emptied, they are filled again, 

 and again pressed, till the quality which tinctures 

 the liquor as it passes through them is exhausted, 

 they are then thrown away ; but the Moo, being 

 deeply stained with the colour, is preserved, as a brush, 

 to lay the dye upon the cloth. 



The expressed liquor is always received into small 

 cups made of the plantain leafi whether from a no- 

 tion that it has any quality favourable to the colour, 

 or from the facility with which it is procured, and 

 the convenience of small vessels to distribute it among 

 the artificers, I do not know. 



p 3 



