Intoxicating Properties of fermented Cocoa-nut Juice. 37 



the ripe nut, thoroughly dried and pressed, gives forth a 

 strong, clear, tasteless oil, which is used by the natives for 

 anointing their skin and hair, and at the same time forms so 

 important an article in European commerce, that above 

 5,000,000 ripe cocoa-nuts are annually exported through 

 foreign mercantile houses in exchange for European fabrics. 

 The hard shell of the cocoa-nut is the sole drinking cup 

 of the Nicobar islanders, and the cooling, refreshing juice, 

 which is extracted by an incision in the sheath of the 

 palm-blossom before the latter has expanded, is the sole 

 fermented beverage of which they make use. Wlien 

 brought into a state of fermentation it possesses similar in- 

 toxicating effects with the Chicha of the American Indian. 

 Here, as among other half-savage races, we had occasion to 

 remark, that the chief food of the aborigines is also made 

 available for supplying them with their favom-ite liquid 

 stimulant, and just as the native of India effects this pm-pose 

 with rice, the African from the Yucca, or the Yam, the 

 South-sea Islander with the Kawa, and the Mexican with the 

 Maize or the Agave, so the inhabitant of the Nicobars avails 

 himself of the cocoa-nut at once for the supply of the first 

 necessities of his existence, and the excitement of his brain by 

 artificial stimulant. 



neither in colour nor taste at all resembles milk. This is obtained or pressed from the 

 white, sweet, rather hard kernel, which is itself extraordinarily nutritive, and forms the 

 daily food of the inhabitants. For an entire month, during which we could procure 

 neither cows' nor goats' milk, we experimented on the use of the fluid obtained from 

 the ripe cocoa-nut in our tea and coffee, and found it so excellent that we hardly felt 

 the privation of animal milk. 



