174 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



and enter into every part of the daily life of the Sinhalese, as food, 

 drink, light, fuel, household utensils, and building materials. It 

 is an article of foreign commerce, the chief source of Sinhalese 

 wealth, and an important field of industry in the Island. The 

 coconut flourishes best in the wetter coast regions. Almost every 

 Sinhalese hut has a few of these palms near it, and many very large 

 coconut estates are cultivated by wealthy Ceylonese. The fruit, 

 when green, supplies food and drink ; when ripe it yields oil. The 

 juice of the unopened flower gives toddy and arrack. Ai-rack is a 

 delicate, wholesome spirit obtained by double distillation from the 

 sap of the coconut. The fibrous husk of the fruit when woven 

 makes ropes, nets, and matting. The nut shell forms drinking 

 vessels, spoons, &c. The plaited leaves serve as plates and dishes 

 and as thatch for the hut. The dried frond of the palm is twisted 

 into a bundle and used as a torch. These torches, knoAvn as chulu 

 light, are often employed for the purposes of illumination on festival 

 occasions and ordinarily used by vfllagers at night to light their way. 

 The midribs of the leaflets are tied into bundles and make very 

 good brooms for sweeping ; the large leaf stalks as garden fences. 

 The trunk of the tree saAvn up is employed for every possible purpose , 

 from laiife handles to doorposts and rafters. The fruits while young 

 contain a pint or more of a sweet watery fluid , which affords a most 

 refreshing drink. As the nut ripens the water decreases and the 

 kernel hardens. The nuts are gathered at about ten months old. 

 Their kernels are eaten raw, in curries, and in other ways. The 

 kernel when used in cookery is grated very fme by an instrument 

 called a coconut scraper (to be seen in Case 34) , after which mflk is 

 squeezed out of it. When dried the coconut is Imown as copra. 

 From this oil is extracted, and the residue is used as poultry and 

 cattle food, kno-wn as " poonac," which is considered a valuable 

 fattening food. The oil is used for lighting, but its great use in 

 Europe is for soap making. It also forms a hair dressing, and is 

 used for the manufacture of candles. There is also a large industry 

 in desiccated coconut in connection with confectionery. The outer 

 husk of the coconut contains a large number of large stout fibres 

 running lengthwise. The husks removed from the nuts are thrown 

 into water to soak and rot, and then by beating out the soft tissues 

 from the fibres coir yarn is obtained. There are large mflls where 

 special machinery is used for preparing coir fibre, which is exported 

 from the Island. 



At the bottom of the case will be seen a model of an arrack stfll. 

 Arrack is obtained by " preparing the flowers " — ^a process which 

 consists of beating once a day with a short but heavy wooden 

 instrument the long spathe or sheath in which the immature flowers 

 of the coconut are enfolded. Such treatment under an experienced 

 hand has the effect in about seven days of reducing the whole flower 

 to a pulp without breaking the sheath or envelope in which it is 

 contained, and when this result has been obtained, and the pointed 

 end of the spathe cut ofl, the juice produced by this bruismg of the 

 flowers will triclde out slowly into a small earthen pot which is 

 fastened to the end ; the juice which falls is sweet toddy, which 

 ferments and becomes arrack. Every morning and evening when 

 the toddy-drawer collects his toddy he must again cut ofi a thin 

 slice from the open end of the inflorescence, which by exposure to 

 the atmosphere would rapidly dry up or heal and so obstruct the 

 passage of the juice. 



