14 ODOiJoraiAriiiA. 



flattened by the hands in single layers, is placed on mats for three 

 or four days in the sun to dry. Some planters cut off the heels, 

 and dry the mace in doable blades from an opinion thai the insect 

 attacking the spice is apt to build in or about the heels, and that 

 the doul)le blade gives a better and more substantial appearance 

 to the mace. The former idea is entirely groundless, for if the 

 article be properly cured, kept in tight packages in a dry situation, 

 and exposed to the sun for five or six hours once a fortnight, 

 there need be no apprehension of tlie insect ; and if it is not, it will 

 assuredly be attacked by it, whether the heels be cut off or not. 

 Again, the insect is much more likely to nestle within the fold of 

 the double blade, and the fancied superiority of appearance has 

 so little weight with the purchaser, as not to counterbalance the 

 risk of probable deterioration and eventual loss. In damp and 

 rainy weather the mace should be dried by the heat of a charcoal 

 fire, carefully conducted so as not to smoke or blacken its surface. 

 The nuts liberated from their macy envelope are transported to 

 the drying-house and deposited on the elevated stage of split 

 neebongs, forming hurdles or gratings, placed at a sufficient 

 distance from each other to admit of the heat from a smouldering- 

 fire beneath, without sutlering even the smallest nuts to pass 

 through. The heat should not exceed 140° Fahrenheit, for a 

 sudden inordinate degree of heat dries up the kernels of the nuts 

 too rapidly, and its continued application produces fissures in 

 them, or a fermentation is excited in them which increases their 

 volume so greatly as to fill up the whole cavity of the shell, and 

 to prevent them from rattling when put to this criterion of due 

 preparation. The fire is lighted in the night. The smoking- 

 house is a l)rick building of a suitable size with a terraced roof, 

 and the stage is placed at an elevation of ten feet from the ground, 

 having three divisions in it for the produce of difterent months. 

 The nuts must be turned every second or third day, that they may 

 all partake equally of the heat, and such as have undergone the 

 smoking process for the period of two complete months, and rattle 

 freely in their shell, are to be cracked with wooden mallets, the 

 worm-eaten and shrivelled ones thrown out, and the good ones 

 rubbed over simply with recently -prepared well-sifted dry lime. 

 They are now to be re-garbled and finally packed for transporta- 

 tion in tight casks, the insides of which have been smoked, cleaned 

 and covered with a coating of lime mixed with fresh water. If 



