TIIK COCOA NUT TltKK. 



24!) 



tliough they have a name for sugar extracted in 

 other countries from that jjlant, which is since or 

 c/iincc. The common soldiersordinarily use jagery; 

 and many Europeans of the upper ranks ])refer it 

 for sweetening coffee. Sugar-candy, wliicli is 

 chiefly imported from China, is the saccharine sub- 

 stance connnonly used by the riclier classes of Eu- 

 ropeans in India. In some parts of the interior of 

 Ceylon, particularly in the vicinity of Adam's 

 Peak, great numbers of the inhabitants support 

 themselves by extracting a sweet juice from the 

 ue])ervtree ( Ca)yotaurcns,) and manufacturing 

 it into jagery. This tree grows spontaneously 

 in the woods. The people thus employed, sub- 

 sist chiefly upon coarse sugar. They occasion- 

 ally procure a little rice and salt by barter, but 

 the^' do not raise gi'ain by cultivating tlie soil. 



There is some foundation for supposing, that 

 the sugar of the ancients, which seems to have 

 been imported from India, was the produce of 

 tlie palm family of plants, and not that of the 

 sugar-cane. Salmasius, the commentator of 

 Pliny, is decidedly of opinion, that the sugar of 

 the moderns is the produce of a different plant 

 from that which produced the sugar of the 

 Greeks and Romans. All authors on this sub- 

 ject describe the sugar of the ancients as being of 

 a very coarse quality, and mixed with a large 

 ]iortion of molasses, exactly resembling jaqcri/, 

 the produce of some of the palms. Virey, in his 

 account of sugar, says expressly, that, " le pre- 

 mier Sucre apporte des Indes n'etoit qu'une 

 moscoriade (sucrebnit.)" And, in an essay upon 

 the History of the Commerce of Venice, it is 

 stated, that the sugar which was manufactured 

 in Sicily, as early as 1173, brought a higher 

 jirice than that which they imported from Egypt 

 or from India, by the way of the Red sea. The 

 extraction of sugar from the sugar-cane is much 

 more operose than from the juice afforded by 

 palms ; and this may be one reason why palm- 

 sugar should be more early known tlian cane- 

 sugar, even in countries where the sugar cane is 

 indigenous. 



Among the articles of commerce which the Ve- 

 netians imported from Asia, about the year OOO, 

 sugar is mentioned ; but whether it was the pro- 

 duce of palm trees, or of the sugar-cane, cannot 

 be satisfactorily ascertained. It is the opinion 

 of Mr Marsden, that the sugar of the aJicients 

 was procured from ])alms. In his history of 

 Sumatra he says, " If the ancients were ac- 

 quainted with sugar, it was produced from some 

 species of the palms, as the sugar-cane was not 

 brought into the Mediterranean from the coast, 

 till a short time before the /liscovery of the pas- 

 sage to India by the Cape. The word sacchanim 

 is conjectured to be derived from jagprcc, which 

 the French pronounce schagarcc." His opinion 

 is corroborated by Mr Crawfin-d, who informs 

 us, that, "although the cane bo a native of the 



Indian islands, the art of manufacturing sugar 

 from it is certainly a foreign art. There is no 

 name for sugar in any dialect of the Indian 

 islands, but a foreign one gula, (perhaps a cor- 

 riqHion of goor sweet;) and this foreign one 

 is pure Sanscrit. When Europeans first became 

 acquainted with the natives of these islands, they 

 found them ignorant of the manufacture of sugar 

 from the cane. The Hindoo word gula (some- 

 times ipritten gour) is indeed equally applicable 

 to palm sugar as to that of the cane. It may be 

 supposed therefore that the Hindoos instructed 

 the Indian islanders only in the simple process 

 of manufacturing the former, and that the ma- 

 nufacture of the latter was introduced by the 

 Chinese, under the auspices chiefly of Europeans 

 and in times comparatively very recent." Hum- 

 boldt however infers, from some Chinese paint- 

 ings which he saw at Lima, representing the 

 different processes for extracting sugar, that this 

 art is extremely ancient in that country. 



Lime, to which a small quantity of jagery is 

 added, takes on a very fine polish. Walls are 

 prepared for receiving this covering, by wetting 

 tliem with a strong infusion of the husk of un- 

 ripe cocoas; and the same kind of fluid is used 

 for mixing and tempering the materials. In 

 Madras, and some other jiarts of India, the H it 

 tops of the houses are covered with this cement. 

 It is much employed to cover, columns, as also 

 to form the floors of rooms. Floors of thiskiml 

 are sometimes stained and made to resemble the 

 finest marble. It is said that jagery-cement has 

 succeeded verj' well in Holland. In 1818, Cey- 

 lon exported jagery to the value of 09,24.5 rix 

 dollai-s. The Ceylon rix-dollar at par was then 

 equal to Is. 9d. Sterling. 



When the flower has not been injured, the 

 tree bears nuts which are converted to many 

 useful purposes. In sonre parts of India the 

 cocoa nut is a symbol of matrimonial alliance. 

 Young cocoa nuts are much used by the natives 

 as an article of diet. During the unripe state of 

 the fniit, the shell is lined with a pulpy sub- 

 stance, while the centre is filled with an aqueous 

 fluid. This fluid is at first slightly astringent 

 and sub-acid; as the fruit ripens, it becomes 

 sweetish, and not unlike tlic colour and consis- 

 tence of the whey of milk. When di-unk before 

 the sun has far advanced, it is much cooler than 

 the atmosphere, and is then a pleasant beverage. 

 Natives, particularly when travelling, generally 

 furnish themselves with a few unripe nuts (la- 

 nias, Poi'tuguese,)thewatcr of which they drink, 

 and eat the pul])y portion or kernel. Upon a 

 few re]).asts of this kind, a man will labour from 

 moniing till night, without any other article of 

 diet. The native inhabitants of the coasts of 

 some of the islands in the equinoctial zone, are 

 more palmivorous than granivoroiis. Where a 

 people can 1,'e satisfied with food so easily prc- 

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