350 A USEFUL PALM. 



partaken pretty freely of the poisoned water, complained of 

 excessive thirst, and burning of the throat. The Sooloos 

 employ the same fruit, and another plant, which grows 

 wild, and which they call " Tubli," for the purpose of 

 poisoning fish, in the same manner as the " Butong," or 

 Barringtonia speciosa, is used at Samboanga, and the 

 Tephrosia toxicaria in Borneo. 



The Gomuti Palm, on account of the numerous uses 

 to which it is converted, deserves here a more extended 

 notice. This Palm, besides the names of Aran and Gomuti, 

 is also called sometimes Tuack, Gumatty, or Cabo-Negro. 

 Although the outer covering of the fruit is possessed of 

 such poisonous qualities, yet it is in reality one of the 

 most useful Palms indigenous to the Indian Islands. The 

 interior of the fruit is used as a sweetmeat ; the cut ex- 

 tremities of the peduncles of the inflorescence yield 

 " toddy," a cooling, grateful beverage, much patronized 

 by the natives of these thirsty regions ; from the toddy, 

 according to Crawford, "the only sugar used by the 

 native population " of Java is prepared ; the reticulum at 

 the base of the petioles of the leaves constitutes a kind 

 of Coir, a substance most admirably adapted to the 

 manufacture of cables, and extensively used for cordage 

 of every description. This substance, which is described 

 by Dalrymple in his 'Natural Curiosities of Sooloo,' 

 although an important product of Sooloo, is met with in 

 the finest state at Manado, in Celebes. It is generally 

 confounded with Coir, which is produced from the husk 

 of the Cocoa-nut, and is a substance known to few who 

 have not passed the strait of Malacca, and to fewer still 

 the manner in which it is obtained. Mr. Dalrymple, 



