THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 939 



Hie toddy pi'ocured from the male Palmyra tree is said to be 

 sweeter than that from the female. The latter, besides, yields 

 only about half as much sap as the male. 



Many trees are encircled near the ground with a strip of tar, etc., 

 to prevent ants and other vermin getting up and making a 

 decoction of the toddy in the chatties. 



It is not a little amusing to notice the various comparisons to 

 which this juice has given rise. Sir W. Jones compares it, fresh 

 from the tree, to Poubon w^ater, fresh from the fountain, or to the 

 best mild champagne ; Malcolm, the American, naturally enough 

 associates its taste with that of his native cider ; while Johnson, 

 traveller in Abyssinia, ranks it no higher than ginger beer. It 

 is possible it bears a resemblance to all these, and indeed a good 

 deal of the Ceylon ginger beer is made from toddy. The result of 

 partaking of toddy in the early morning is generally a listless 

 drowsy sensation. 



■2. S'lMjar or Jcujijerif . — It appears, says Ferguson, that in the 

 time of Menu, upwards of 4,000 years ago, the Hindus knew how 

 to make sugar from the flowers of the Madhuca tree (Bassia Icdi- 

 folia) ; and this being the case, there is great reason to suppose 

 that sugar Avas made from some of the palm-trees at a much 

 earlier pei'iod. Sugar candy is alhided to by Megasthenes under 

 the name of ' Indian stone,' and to this daj^ the crystals formed 

 either from jaggery or the juice of the cane are called ' Catcandu, 

 or stone sugar. The common Indian name for the finer sorts of 

 sugar, ' Oheenee ' has been supposed to point to the Chinese 

 origin of the production. 



The usual process of making jaggery, as persued at Jaffna, is 

 exceedingly simple. The sweet toddy is boiled until it becomes a 

 thick syrup ; a small quantity of scraped cocoanut kernel is thrown 

 in that it may be ascertained by the feel if the syrup has reached 

 the proper consistency and then it is poured into small baskets of 

 Palmyra leaf where it cools and hardens into jaggerj^. In these 

 small plaited Palmyra baskets it is kept for home consumption, 



^ These terms are variously derived from the Sanskrit 'Sakar,' Arabic Shakar 

 whence the Latin ' Saccharum", and the English ' Sugar." 



