742 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



used for cordage. The hard shell of the nut is 

 polished and made into a cup or other domestic 

 utensil. The fronds are wrought into ba-kets. 

 brooms, mat-, sacks. and many other useful 

 articles; the trunks are made 'into boats or 

 furnish timber for the construction of houses. 

 By boring the tree a white sweetish liquor called 

 toddy exudes from the wound, and yields by dis- 

 tillation one of the varieties of the spirit called 

 arack. \ kind of sugar called jntwry is also 

 obtained from the juice by inspissation. 



Coffee. Is the seed of an evergreen shrub 

 which is cultivated in hot climates, and is a 

 native of Abyssinia and of Arabia. This shrub 

 is from fifteen to twenty feet in height; the leaves 

 are green, glossy on the upper surface, and the 

 are white and sweet-scented. The fruit 

 is of an oval shape, about the size of a cherry, 

 and of a dark-red color when ripe. Each of 

 > <mtains two cells, and each cell a single 

 seed, which is the coffee as we see it before it 

 undergoes the process of roasting. Great at- 

 tention is paid to the culture of coffee in Arabia. 

 The trees are raised from seed sown in nurseries 

 and afterwards planted out in moist and shady 

 situations, on sloping grounds or at the foot of 

 mountains. Care is taken to conduct little rills 

 of water to their roots, which at certain seasons 

 require to be constantly surrounded with moist- 

 ure. When the fruit has attained its maturity 

 cloths are placed under the trees, and upon these 

 the laborers shake it down. They afterwards 

 spread the berries on mats, and expose them 

 to the sun to dry. The husk is then broken off 

 by large and heavy rollers of wood or iron. 

 When the coffee has been thus cleared of its 

 husk it is again dried in the sun, and, lastly, 

 winnowed with a large fan, for the purpose of 

 clearing it from the pieces of husks with which 

 it is intermingled. A pound of coffee is gener- 

 ally more than the produce of one tree; but a 

 tree in great vigor will produce three or four 

 pounds. The best coffee is imported from 

 Mocha, on the Red Sea. It is packed in large 

 bales, each containing a number of smaller bales, 

 and when good appears fresh and of a greenish- 

 olive color. Next in quality to the Mocna coffee 

 may perhaps be ranked that of Southern India 

 and tnat of Ceylon, which is strong and well 

 flavored. Java and Central America also pro- 

 duce large quantities of excellent coffee. Bra- 

 zilian coffee, though produced more abundantly 

 than any other, stanas at the bottom of the list 

 as regards quality. Liberian coffee may also 

 be mentioned. American coffee holds in the 

 judgment of all Orientals the very last rank. 

 The Dutch were the first to extend the cultiva- 

 tion of coffee beyond the countries to which it 

 is native. About 1690, some coffee seeds were 

 brought to Java, where they were planted and 

 produced fruit. By 1718, the Dutch planters 

 of Surinam had entered on the cultivation of 

 coffee with success, and ten years after it was 

 introduced from that colony by the English into 

 Jamaica, and by the French into Martinique. 

 It was not till 1774, that the planters of Bra/il, 

 now the greatest producers of coffee in the world, 

 commenced its cultivation. Coffee as an article 

 of diet is of but comparatively recent introduc- 

 tion. To the Greeks and Romans it was wholly 



unknown. From Arabia it passed to Kirypt 

 and Turkey, whence it was introduced into Lng- 

 land by a Turkey merchant named Edwards in 

 K')-")!'. whose Greek servant, named Pasqua. first 

 opened a coffee-house in London, hi li>71. an 

 Armenian named Pascal set up a coffee-house 

 in Paris. In Great Britain much le is drunk 

 than on the continent of Europe or in the United 

 States and Canada, tea being the British national 

 beverage. The excellence of coffee depends in 

 a great measure on the skill and attentio; 

 cised in roasting it. If it be too little roasted 

 it is devoid of flavor, and if too much it becomes 

 acrid, and has a disagreeable, burned taste. 



Condor. A South American bird, one of 

 the largest of the vulturine birds. In it- 

 tial features it resembles the common vultures, 

 differing from them mainly in the large cartila- 

 ginous caruncle which surmounts its Leak, and in 

 the large size of its oval and longitudinal nostrils 

 placed almost at the extremity of the cere. 1 >e- 

 spite the many stories of its gigantic proportions, 

 Humboldt met with no specimens whose wi 

 ceeded nine feet in expanse, though it has oc- 

 casionally been known to attain an expanse of 

 fourteen feet. It is found in greatest numbers 

 in the Andes chain, frequenting regions from 

 10,000 to 15,000 feet above the level of the sea 

 where they breed, depositing their two white 

 eggs on the bare rock. They are generally to be 

 seen in groups of three or four, and only descend 

 to the plains under stress of hunger, when they 

 will successfully attack sheep, goats, deer, and 

 bullocks. They prefer carrion, however, and, 

 when they have opportunity, gorge themselves 

 until they become incapable of rising from the 

 ground, and so become a prey to the Indians. 



Crab. The popular name for a considerable 

 group, of invertebrate animals belonging to the 

 class Crustacea, of which there are numerous 

 species, exceedingly various in size, color, and 

 modes of living. Like other crustaceans, their 

 bodies are covered by an external skeleton or 

 calcareous crust; they have ten jointed limbs, 

 adapted for walking; and the breathing is per- 

 formed by means of gills, which are somewhat 

 like a pyramid in form, and in the edible crabs 

 are popularly called dead men's fingers. The 

 head and breast are united, constituting the: 

 cephalothorax, and the whole covered by a strong 

 carapace, which is broader than it is long. The 

 tail, or abdomen, is very short, and is tucked up 

 beneath the cephalothorax out of view; it is 

 employed by the females to carry the eggs. In 

 all the essential points of their anatomy the 

 crabs do not differ from the lobster and the 

 crayfish, but they are decidedly higher in their 

 organization. The sense of sight is peculiarly 

 acute, and enables them to distinguish the ap- 

 proach of objects at a considerable distance. 

 The mouth is furnished with several pairs of 

 strong jaws; in addition to which the stomach 

 has its internal surface studded with hard pro- 

 jections, or teeth, for the purpose of grinding 

 the food. The liver is of great size, and con- 

 stitutes that soft, rich, yellow substance, found 

 immediately beneath the shell, and called the 

 fat of the crab. The crabs, like the lobsters, 

 "moult," or throw off their entire calcareous cov- 

 ering, periodically, when they are soft and help- 



