COCOS NUCIFEKA. 285 



In the vernacular of the island a different name is applied to the coconut for every 

 stage of its development: 



Niyog, etymologically identical with its name throughout Polynesia, is its general 



designation. 

 Dadig, a young coconut the size of a betel nut. 

 Aplog, a young coconut in which water has begun to form. 

 Manha, a" coconut full of water fit for drinking, called by the Spaniards "coco- 



nuulo." 

 Mason, a coconut not quite ripe. 

 Gafo, a coconut perfectly ripe. 

 Pontan, a coconut which has fallen to the ground. 

 Nag-ao, a coconut in which the water has become entirely al^sorbed. 

 Jaig-iie, or Haigue, a coconut which has sprouted (pronounced very much like 



"highway"). 

 Cancidn, a variety of which the young nut has a sweet edible rind. 



From experiments conducted by Kirkwood and Gies « it was found that the fresh 

 meat contains 35 to 40 per cent of oil, 10 per cent of carbohydrate, only 3 per cent of 

 proteid, 1 per cent of inorganic matter, and nearly 50 per cent of water. The chief 

 constituent of the "milk" of the central cavity, aside froiu w^ter (of which there is 

 95 per cent), is sugar. 



The meat of the ripe coconut, though agreeable to the taste, is seldom eaten by 

 the Pacific islanders. It is fed to domestic animals of all kinds, even to cats and 

 dogs, and is very fattening. In Guam it is rasped or grated and fed to chickens, but 

 they do not lay so well when living upon a coconut diet as when fed with corn. 

 From the grated meat a rich custard, or "cream," is expressed, which is extensively 

 used throughout Polynesia as an ingredient for native dishes. One of the most savory 

 of these, in which it is cooked with tender young leaves of Caladium colocasia, is in 

 Samoa called "palu-sami." This cream contains much oil, as well as carbohydrate 

 and proteid, and is consequently very nourishing as well as pleasant to the taste. In 

 Guam the natives combine it with rice in various forms, and sometimes prepare it 

 like a simple custard. It makes an excellent broth when boiled with a fowl or with 

 other meat, and in the early days of long voyages nuts were carried to sea and used 

 by the sailors for making rice-milk, a dish which they had learned from the natives 

 to prepare. '^ 



The water contained in the central cavity, though " sweetest and briskest" when 

 the nut is almost ripe, as described by Dampier, is at that stage unwholesome, and 

 can be drunk only sparingly, as it is strongly diuretic and is apt to produce an irrita- 

 tion of the t>ladder and urethra. The milk of young nuts, on the contrary, is harm- 

 less. On some islands it is the only beverage of the natives. From personal experience 

 the writer can testify to its refreshing, grateful properties, and to a continued use of 

 it throughout his stay in the island without disagreeable consequences of any kind. 

 On tlie other hand, a number of cases came under his observation of the evil effects 

 of drinking the milk of ripe coconuts. Immoderate use of the fruit is said to cause 

 rheumatic and other diseases. <' This applies, in all probability, to the ripe nut, 

 which the writer has never seen used as a food staple. The soft pulp of the young 

 nuts, which furnish the natives with drink, is very delicate and is eaten like blanc- 

 mange, with sugar and cream. The i)rincipal way of preparing the meat of the ripe 

 nut for food is to grate it and combine it with sugar for sweetmeats and with custard 

 for making cakes and otliei- kinds of pastry. Another use to which the natives of Guam 

 apply the meat of the coconut is the fattening of the "robber crab" {Birgus latro), 

 which they keep in captivity «until fit for the table. It has often been asserted that 

 this singular animal climbs trees in quest of coconuts, detaches them with his claws, 



« Chemical Studies of theCocoanut, Bull. TorreyBot. Club, vol. 29, pp. 321 ff., 1902. 

 f' Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World, p. 294. 



c Gies, Nutritive value and uses of the cocoanut, Journ. N. Y. Bot.Gard., vol. 3, p. 

 169, 1892. 



