THE PALMS OF ASIA. 7& 



accordingly it is sometimes found occupying 

 extensive tracts to the exclusion of all other 

 trees. The whole Brazilian coast, from the 

 river San Francisco to the bar of Mamanguape, 

 a distance of 280 miles, is, with a few breaks, 

 thus occupied ; and it was estimated that, ia 

 1813, no fewer than ten millions of cocoa nut 

 trees were growing on the south-western coast 

 of Ceylon, between Dondra Head and Calpentyn, 

 which produced, in addition to a great quan- 

 tity of cocoa nut oil, six thousand leaguers 

 (900,000 gallons) of arrack, and upwards of 

 three million pounds' weight of coir cordage. 



There is a curious tradition in Ceylon, where 

 the cocoa nut tree is not common in the in- 

 terior, that once it did not exist there, but that 

 its discovery was owing to a vision Avith which 

 a rajah, or monarch of the country, was visited. 

 The king was afflicted with a loathsome leprosy, 

 which rendered his appearance scarcely human, 

 (elephantiasis, probably,) and being very ob- 

 servant of the superstitious rites and ceremonies 

 of the native Cingalese, he prayed and fasted 

 according to the strictest injunctions of the 

 priests, and at length fell into a trance. While 

 in this state he beheld a vast expanse of water 

 as far as the eye could reach, which, on tasting 

 it, he found to be salt and nauseous, and on ita 



