Chap. VI.] 



THE PALMYRA PALM. 



527 



lese have an idea that the side next the south is su- 

 perior to the rest of the wood. There can be no doubt 

 that the timber of the female pahn is much harder and 

 blacker than that of the male ; inasmuch as it brings 

 nearly triple its price : the natives are so well aware of 

 the difference, that they resort to the device of immersing 

 the male tree in salt water to deepen its colour as well as 

 to add to its Aveight.^ 



The leaves are in almost greater request than the 

 wood and fruit of the palmyi^a. Once in every two 

 years the thatch of the native houses and the fences 

 of their fields are renewed with this convenient and 

 most suitable substance ; the old material being care- 

 fully conveyed as manure to their rice-lands. Mats are 

 woven for the floors and ceihngs, and baskets are 

 plaited so densely that they serve to carry water for irri- 

 gating fields and gardens. Caps, fans, and umbrellas 

 are all provided from the same inexliaustible source, 

 and strips of the finer leaves steeped in milk to render 

 them elastic, and smoothed by pressm^e so as to enable 

 them to be written on "vvith a stile, serve for their 

 books and correspondence ; and are kept, duly stamped, 

 at the cutcherries to be used instead of parchment for 

 deeds and legal documents.'"^ These are but a few of 



1 Pliny notices as a fact, that 

 certain woods on being dried after 

 immersion in the sea, acquire addi- 

 tional density and durability. — Xat. 

 Hist., lib. xiii. ch. 1. 



^ In the Ai'abian manuscript of 

 Albyroxjni, who wrote his accoimt of 

 India in the tenth centuiy, he describes 

 a tree in the south of the Dekkan, 

 resembling the date or the coco-nut 

 palm, on the leaves of which the 

 natives wi-ote, and passing a cord 

 through a hole in the centre formed 

 books. These leaA^es, he says, were a 

 cubit in length and three finger- 

 breadths wide, and, according to him, 

 they were called " ^«r//." i3y Tary, 

 M. IlErxAUD, who quotes from tlie 

 Arabic, supposes Albyroimi to mean 



tala, but it is clear that he meant 

 not the talipot, but the palmyra ; as 

 he specially says that the fruit of tlie 

 tree lie alludes to is eatable, which 

 that of the talipat is not. Besides 

 Turi is one of the native Tamil names 

 for the palmyra. Eeinaud, Mem. 

 mr VInde, p. 305-307, says " les 

 Europeens ont donne aux feuiUes do 

 cet arbre le non d'o/Zw ; mot qui a 

 ote mis en usage par les auteurs 

 Portugais." But De Barros, though 

 he uses the term " olla " to denote 

 the leaves used for writing in India, 

 says expressly that it is an Indiiui 

 word: "todo o gentio da India, as 

 cousas que quer eucommodar a nie- 

 moria per escritura, he em liumas 

 folhas de paluia, a que elks chamam 



