THE COCOA NUT TREE. 



245 



of the palmyra (horassus Jlah :lliformis ) , or tali- 

 pot (corypha umhraculifera ) , are, however, much 

 more frequently employed for this purpose. Con- 

 tracts and other legal instruments are often en- 

 graven upon tablets of copper, similar in shape 

 to a slip of the talipot leaf, which have occasion- 

 ally a border of silver or gold. An allusion is 

 made to the practice of writing upon tablets in 

 Isa. XXX. 8, and Hab. ii. 2. Palm leaves, when 

 they are prepared to receive the impression of 

 the stylus, are called ollahs. The natives \vrite 

 letters to one another upon ollahs, which are 

 neatly rolled up, and sometimes sealed with a little 

 gum-lac ; in this manner they pass through the 

 post-office. During the operation of writing, 

 tlie leaf is supported by the left hand, and the 

 letters scratched upon the surface with the stylus. 

 Instead of moving the hand with which they 

 write towards the right, they move the leaf in a 

 contrary direction, by means of the thumb of the 

 left hand. To render the characters more legible, 

 the engraved lines are frequently fiUed by be- 

 smearing the leaf with fresh cow dung, which is 

 tinged black, by rubbing the lines over with co- 

 coa nut oil, or a mixture of oil and charcoal pow- 

 der. The natives can -write standing as well as 

 walking, and they rarely use tables. 



Palm leaves, and perhaps the leaves of trees 

 that do not belong to this natural class, were 

 much used by the ancients as writing materials; 

 lience the word leaf {oi a book) is synonymous 

 ■with that of a tree. 



Baskets for catching fish, shrimps, &c., are 

 made of the ligneous ril)s of the leaflet. The 

 same substance is employed by the natives for 

 many of the purposes for which we use pins. A 

 bundle of these ribs is in universal use, as a broom, 

 to sweep the cottages ; and when an European 

 asks for a tooth-pick, his servant brings him a 

 portion of one of these fibres. I am informed, 

 that they have lately been recommended to be 

 employed as a nucleus for bougies. The South 

 sea islanders make the teetli of combs for the 

 hair of this part of the leaf. 



In a domestic state, elephants are fed chiefly 

 upon cocoa nut leaves ; and this animal evinces 

 much sagacity in separating the elastic woody 

 fibre from the thinner margin of the leaf. 



For temporary purposes, cadjan houses are fre- 

 quently constructed, both by natives and Euro- 

 peans. During the insurrection in the Kandy- 

 an country in 1818, almost all the sick were ac- 

 commodated in cadjan hospitals. Except the 

 frame work, every part of the house, walls, and 

 roof, is formed of cocoa nut leaves, and they are 

 capable of resisting all kinds of weather for a 

 year or more. 



To prevent thieving, the owners of topes fre- 

 quently fix a cocoa n\it leaf along the stems of 

 the fruit trees. As the leaf rustles mucli when 

 touched, a thief ia cautious of ascending the 



trunk of the tree lest he should alarm some of 

 the inmates of the neighbouring huts. Thun- 

 berg mistook the use of these leaves, and sup- 

 posed that they supplied " the place of ladders, 

 by means of which the natives could climb up 

 and gather the fniit." 



In warm climates it is customary to travel 

 during night, with the view of avoiding the in- 

 fluence of an ardent sun. Torches then become 

 necessary, and cocoa nut leaves are chiefly em- 

 ployed for this purpose. By tying the leaflets 

 close to the centre rib of a leaf, the ignition is 

 prevented from being too rapid. Torches of co- 

 coa nut leaves, commonly denominated chasls, 

 Cooloo attu, Singhalese), are in constant use, to 

 obstruct the inroads of wild beasts upon culti- 

 vated fields, more particularly of elephants. In 

 the interior of Ceylon, every field under culti- 

 vation must be watched during night, to prevent 

 the depredations which would be made upon the 

 crops, were these animals to have free ingress. 

 When burned, the cocoa nut tree, especially the 

 leaves, affords a large proportion of potash, 

 whence the washermen procure all the potash 

 they require by the incineration of different parts 

 of the tree. Soap is very little used by the na- 

 tive washermen in Ceylon. 



Boats are rowed with the centre rib of the 

 leaf, in which operation it forms a substitute for 

 paddles. The end of this part of the leaf, when 

 well bruised, and thereby converted into a brush, 

 is used for a variety of purposes, such as white- 

 washing houses, &c. 



In British Guiana, the natives make a species 

 of ^olian harp of the stipe of the leaf of a cocoa 

 nut tree ; and some tribes split the stipes, and 

 after rendering the slit portions very thin, they 

 are attached together laterally by means of their 

 silky grass, thereby forming a sail for canoes. 



Flower and Fruit. The spaths, or fibrous cov- 

 ering of the blossoms, are inflammable ; on that 

 account they are often employed as torches ; and 

 in some parts of India they are soaked in water, 

 and converted into coarse cordage, with which 

 the thatch of houses is tied. In the South sea 

 islands it is employed in a green state by females 

 as an apron, or substitute for a petticoat. 



Many useful products are derived from the 

 flower and fruit of this tree. By a peculiar 

 manipulation the flower yields a rich saccharine 

 juice, which is convertible into arrack or sugar. 

 The word arrack, arak, rack, is probably a cor- 

 ruption of the Arabic word urtiq or urak, a gen- 

 eral name for distilled spirits. Uruq, more or 

 less corrupted, is employed along the northern 

 coasts of Africa, including Egypt, over all Asia 

 with its islands, and even in the north and east- 

 ern parts of Europe, to denominate spirits. Raki 

 is made at Constantinople from the skin of grapes 

 when the juice has been expressed for wine. It 

 is rendered aromatic with angelica, and a portion 



