90 THE PALJIS OF ASIA, 



down it went into the inmost core of the giant 

 stem ; all his strength was employed ; he 

 strained and struggled among the huge leaves 

 as though he was engaged in deadly strife with 

 some terrible boa, or chutah. At hist he 

 secured his antagonist, and descended with 

 something alive, small and black, and impaled 

 on the barbed point of his little weapon. A 

 few questions elicited the whole secret. The 

 cocoa nut tree, it seems, has many enemies 

 besides squirrels ; the elephant, the Avild hog, 

 the rat, the white ant, the porcupine, the 

 monkey, and a large white worm, either attack 

 it while young, or rob it of its fruit when ma- 

 ture. But the most numerous and persevering 

 enemy which it has to encounter, from the age 

 of three years till long after it produces fruit, is 

 the cooroominya, or cocoa nut beetle, a black, 

 hard-coated creature, with beautiful wings, and 

 a most powerful little tusk, which it employs 

 with fatal activity to open a way into the trunks 

 of the palms. Its labours commence in the 

 evening, and by early morning it will be buried 

 half-a-dozen inches deep in the very centre of 

 the tree, where, if not detected and removed, it 

 feeds on the soft pithy fibres, deposits its eggs, 

 and does not depart in less than two or three 

 days. These holes arc always made in the 



I 



