220 FLORIDA FRUITS COCOA-NUTS. 



one variety the Cingalese knew nothing, and never dreamed 

 of its value as an article of food. 



Regarding the tardy discovery of the vast importance of 

 the cocoa-palm, there is handed down among them a curi- 

 ous tradition ; the exact date of the events related is, how- 

 ever, not given. 



It seems that a great and good rajah chanced, most un- 

 consciously, to offend the god Buddhoo by neglecting to 

 offer sacrifices under a certain tree, which the deity had 

 set apart as sacred to himself; not being blessed with om- 

 niscience, the rajah was ignorant of this fact, and was 

 (most unreasonably we think) punished for comporting 

 himself accordingly. His whole person became covered 

 by a white, scaly substance, so that he well-nigh lost all 

 semblance to humanity ; his people, by whom he was 

 justly beloved, offered prayers and sacrifices in his favor, 

 while he himself patiently awaited the result. 



One night he fell into a deep trance, which lasted for 

 several days, and during this sleep he beheld a vast ex- 

 panse of water rolling up against the land upon which he 

 stood. He tasted it and found it nauseous and salt ; turn- 

 ing his back upon the blue waters, his delighted eyes rested 

 upon a great number of tall, slender trees, having no 

 branches, but only a tuft of leaves at the top, and dark- 

 colored balls nestling under this feathery crown. 



The Rottah rajah awoke, and thought upon this won- 

 drous vision ; his home had ever been in the heart of the 

 interior, where, even to this day, the cocoa-palm is un- 

 known ; he had never seen the great ocean ; he had never 

 beheld such trees as he had looked upon in his sleep. The 

 more he thought upon it the more he became convinced 

 that his dream had been sent by the great god Buddhoo ; 

 but what did it portend ? 



The Rottah rajah prayed, and offered sacrifices of sweet- 



