THE MILK IN THE COCO-NUT 177 



or luxuries from tooth-brushes to sausages, from ham to 

 lard, from pepsine wine to pork pies does not nearly ap- 

 proach, in the multiplicity and variety of his virtues, the 

 all-sufficing and world- supplying coco-nut. A Chinese 

 proverb says that there are as many useful properties in 

 the coco-nut palm as there are days in the year ; and a 

 Polynesian saying tells us that the man who plants a coco- 

 nut plants meat and drink, hearth and home, vessels and 

 clothing, for himself and his children after him. Like 

 the great Mr. Whiteley, the invaluable palm-tree might 

 modestly advertise itself as a universal provider. The 

 solid part of the nut supplies food almost alone to thou- 

 sands of people daily, and the milk serves them for drink, 

 thus acting as an efficient filter to the water absorbed by 

 the roots in the most polluted or malarious regions. If you 

 tap the flower stalk you get a sweet juice, which can be 

 boiled down into the peculiar sugar called (in the charming 

 dialect of commerce) jaggery ; or it can be fermented into 

 a very nasty spirit known as palm-wine, toddy, or arrack ; 

 or it can be mixed with bitter herbs and roots to make that 

 delectable compound 'native beer.' If you squeeze the 

 dry nut you get coco-nut oil, which is as good as lard for 

 frying when fresh, and is ' an excellent substitute for butter 

 at breakfast,' on tropical tables. Under the" mysterious 

 name of copra (which most of us have seen with awe de- 

 scribed in the market reports as ' firm ' or ' weak,' ' receding ' 

 or ' steady ' ) it forms the main or only export of many 

 Oceanic islands, and is largely imported into this realm of 

 England, where the thicker portion is called stearine, and 

 used for making sundry candles with fanciful names, while 

 the clear oil is employed for burning in ordinary lamps. In 

 the process of purification, it yields glycerine ; and it enters 

 largely into the manufacture of most better-class soaps. 

 The fibre that surrounds the nut makes up the other 



