CiiAP. n.] 



COCO-XUT TALMS. 



127 



the roadside the liiisks of the nut are steeped to con- 

 vert the fibre into coir \ by decomposing the interstitial 

 pith; — its flesh is dried in the sun preparatory to ex- 

 pressing the oil '^ ; vessels are attached to collect the juice 

 of the unexpanded flowers to be converted into sugar, 

 'and from early morn the toddy drawers are to be seen 

 ascending the trees in quest of the sap draAvn from the 

 spathes of the unopened flowers to be distilled into arrack, 

 the only pernicious purpose to which the gifts of the 

 bounteous tree are perverted. 



The most precious inheritance of a Singhalese is his 

 ancestral garden of coco-nuts ; the attempt to impose a 

 tax on them in 1797, roused the populace to rebeUion ; 

 and it is curiously illustrative of the minute subdivision of 

 property in Ceylon, that in a case which was decided in 

 the district court of GaUe, within a very recent period, 

 the subject in dispute was a claim to the 2,520th jjart 

 of ten coco-nut trees ! 



At Hiccode^, twelve miles from Galle, where our 

 horses were changed, the Moodhar and his suite, in full 

 costume, were waiting to offer us early coffee ; and at 

 the rest-house '* of Amblangodde, seven miles farther on, 

 we were gratified with a present of freshly gathered 

 oranges and pines. As we approached the latter ^dllage, 

 a rock-snake, python reticidcitus, the first we had seen, a 

 beautiful specimen at least ten feet long, was disturbed 

 by our approach as he basked on a sunny bank, and 

 gracefully uncoiling his folds he passed across the fence 

 into the neighbouring enclosure. 



* Tlie term coir is a con-uption of 

 the Maldive term Icanbai; by ■which 

 Aboufelda gays the natives of those 

 isLands designated the cords made 

 from the coco-nut, with which 

 they sewed together the pLaiiks of 

 their shipping. The best coir is made 

 from the nnripe nuts. Cm/er is also 

 ilio Tamil name for " rope " of any 

 kind. 



* The coco-nut when thus dried is 

 called copera, from the Tamil term 

 cohri. 



^ Spelled Hiccadowe. 



^ The choultries erected for the 

 accommodation of travellers in Cey- 

 lon are styled red-honu^s, and ailbrd 

 all the essential requirements for re- 

 freshment and sleep on a very mode- 

 rate scale, and for a proportionately 

 moderate cost. They are always 

 under the control of the chief civil 

 oflicer of the district, who sanctions 

 the tai'iff of charu:cs. 



