COCOA-NUT TREE. 321 



small quantity of oily milk ; it is in this state 

 the nuts are seen and sold in England. In 

 Ceylon, when the nut is fully ripe, it is deno- 

 minated by the Singalese Pol, or Curry cocoa- 

 nut, the kernel of which is reduced to a very 

 small size by an instrument called Hiromane ; 

 (a circle of notched iron fastened to the raised 

 end of a piece of wood ; ) the kernel thus reduced 

 is placed in a cloth, and v/ater being poured on 

 it, a white juice, which may with propriety be 

 termed "cocoa-nut milk," is extracted by pres- 

 sure, and used invariably, either with or with- 

 out the grated kernel, in their various curries 

 and mulligatawnies. 



I have never met with the water contained in 

 a cocoa-nut of a brackish taste, as has been as- 

 serted, although the tree from which it had 

 been produced had its roots laved by the sprays 

 of the ocean. Mr. Finlayson* says, respecting 

 some plantations of cocoa-nut trees, which sur- 

 rounded a village situated on Pulo Condore, at 

 the extremity of a plain, that " although they 

 grow in great abundance, they are rather stunted 

 in the stem, and their fruit, as well as the fluid it 

 contains, has a peculiar and rather bitter 

 taste." 



The shells of the cocoa-nut, when fully ripe, 



* Mission to Siam, page 290. 

 VOL. II. Y 



