326 COCOA-NUT TREE. 



quite sour. One hundred gallons of toddy, it is 

 stated, will produce, by distillation, twenty-five 

 of arrack. Like all other spirits, when new, it is 

 regarded injurious to the constitution, but when 

 old, very wholesome. It is a favourite spirit 

 among the drinkers of that far-famed English 

 beverage, named punch. 



Toddy, besides the foregoing uses, makes 

 excellent vinegar,* &c. The toddy-drawers are 

 a separate caste in Ceylon, called Chandos : 

 almost all the families of this class reside in the 

 neighbourhood of the sea-coast, where the trees 

 grow in the greatest luxuriance and abundance, 

 the whole line of coast between Point de Galle 

 and Colombo being thickly planted with them ; 

 and the topes or groves are let at a stipulated 

 sum of rix -dollars by the month ; and it is also 

 not uncommon for one or two families or more 

 to have a share in a single tree, affording them 



* The vinegar is thus prepared : — The toddy is collected 

 in dry weather, put into jars, and well covered. After a 

 month the contents are strained, and replaced in the same 

 jars, with the addition of a little Chili pepper, (^Capsicum fru- 

 tescens,^ commonly called bird-pepper ; a small piece of Ghor- 

 kah, (fruit of the gamboge tree,) the red sort of which is to 

 be preferred, being most acid ; and the pod of the horse- 

 radish tree {Hyperonthera moringa). At the expiration of a 

 month or five weeks it becomes very excellent vinegar. 



