TEE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 75 



the traveller was about to leave the cabin the host 

 said to him : 



" I wish to write to a friend in town, be good 

 enough to carry my letter for me, I pray ! " 



" Most certainly ; and is the cocoa to furnish you 

 also your writing materials ? " 



" Certainly," answered the Indian ; " from the saw- 

 dust of the branches I have made this ink, and from 

 the leaves this parchment, which formerly was exclu- 

 sively used for public documents and records of im- 

 portant events." 



THE LAQBY 



At the time when the return of spring gives mo- 

 tion to the sluggish sap of the trees, a man mounts 

 to the top of a date palm, climbing up the stem with 

 no other assistance than what he obtains from his 

 naked feet, and a cord passed round his waist and 

 round the tree. He is armed with a very sharp 

 hatchet. Arrived at the top, from which the rich 

 plume of leaves rises proudly, he begins to hack away, 

 without mercy, cutting off all the branches and leaving 

 only four, which form a cross, and seem to point to 

 the cardinal points of the compass. Over the neck 

 of one of these he passes a slender cord, the ends of 

 which reach to the ground, and between two of the 

 remaining leaves he cuts deep into the poor wounded 

 tree. The laqby cask is next broached. A small 

 jar with a wide mouth is hoisted by means of the 

 cord and is fixed to the mouth of the incision that has 

 been made. Twelve hours afterward it can be taken 



