COCOA-NUT TREE. 341 



action being described in a minute and equally 

 incredible manner."* 



Among the articles brought off to the ships for 

 barter at the Island of Tongatabu, were small ca- 

 labashes, (fruit of Melodinus scandens,) filled with 

 cocoa-nut oil perfumed by the sandal-wood, or 

 various sweet-scented flowers, indigenous to the 

 island. With this oil both the males and females 

 anoint the upper parts of the body very pro- 

 fusely, giving a softness and glossiness to their 

 dark-brown skins, and preventing the fervid rays 

 of the sun from having any efl'ect upon them, 

 exposed as their naked bodies are to its in- 

 fluence. 



The Papuas of New Guinea " in general 

 wear a thin stuff" that comes from the cocoa-nut 

 tree, and resembles a coarse kind of cloth, tied 

 forward round the middle, and up behind be- 

 tween the thighs."! 



The outer coarse fibres of the husk of the 

 cocoa-nut, is made into a kind of rope, called 

 Talie, api, or fire-rope, by the Javanese : it re- 

 tains the fire for a long time, and is used in 

 Batavia for lighting cigars. 



The sinnet, made from the inner fibre of the 

 husk of the cocoa-nut, can be procured in abun- 



* Stewart's South Seas, 1829, 1830, p. 177. 



f Forrest's Voyage to New Guinea, 4to. 1780, p. 96. 



