324 COCOA-NUT TREE. 



although at some of the islands Europeans, who 

 have visited those parts of India where they had 

 seen the process of collecting it, had commenced 

 instructing the natives, who were delighted to 

 have a beverage possessing the stimulus of their 

 favourite rum. 



To procure the toddy * the spathe is tied with 

 stripes of the milk-white leaves of the very young 

 branches, (which are much tougher and stronger 

 than the old ones,) to prevent its expansion ; 

 it is cut a little transversely from the top, and 

 beaten either wdth the handle of the toddy knife 

 or a small piece of ebony or iron wood ; this 

 process having been continued morning and 

 evening (at dawn of day, and just as the sun 

 declines below the horizon) for five or six suc- 

 cessive days, the under part of the spathe is 

 taken off, so as to permit of its being gradually 

 bent, when the Chandos or toddy-drawers, for 

 the purpose of keeping it in that position, attach 

 it to some neighbouring branch. After a farther 



* Formerly the toddy was supposed to be the sap of the 

 tree drawn from the branches. " The wine issues from the 

 top of the tree, and is procured thus : — They cut a branch, 

 binding it hard, and hang an earthen pot under the cut end, 

 which the}' empty every morning and evening." — FitcKs 

 Journey to India Overland, in 1583. (Kerr's Collection of 

 Voyages, vol. vii. p. 476.) 



