THE FALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 965 



the fire, then be broken and the kernel be eaten. There is no 

 comparison to the curry or broth made of very tender edible 

 Palmyra roots and cocoanut milk. The kernel that is formed 

 in the Palmyra stone in its advanced stage will be very sweet. 



Hear me now tell you the use of the Palmyra stone shell. It 

 will ever serve as fuel for cooking ; if the shell be partially burned 

 and the inner coat of the shell be removed, it will serve as coals to 

 smiths ; it will also serve as a powder box, tinder box and a 

 pill-vial. 



When the Palmyra tree puts forth blossom, it is rendered fit for 

 yielding the juice by pressing it between two poles, and by beating 

 it with the handle of a knife ; its end is properly incised, a vessel 

 is adjusted to it, and toddy is collected ; if the toddy be presented 

 in Poojah to Sacti, excellent boons may be obtained. Toddy if 

 drunk, excitabit amorem et cupidinem in illis, qui in rem uxoriam 

 inaumhent. If taken daily, it will increase one's muscular strength 

 and give a gloss to his person; if used by children in small quantity 

 it will remove itch and many other diseases. If powdered load- 

 stone and scoria of iron and file be put into the pot that is attached 

 to the incised blossom, and the toddy collected in such a pot be 

 drunk for seven days in the morning — asthmatic affections, bloated 

 cheeks and the like may at once be removed — if, in the morning 

 and evening, the pot that should be attached to the blossom be 

 baked in fire, gui succum in lute olla coUectum hibet di'iitius in 

 Gopulatione morabitur. If shell-lime be put in the pot that should 

 be attached to the blossom, and the toddy be used, hunger, thirst, 

 languor and laziness will be removed, heat in the constitution will 

 be destroyed and coolness be created. Toddy will be very sweet if 

 powdered pepper be put in it and boiled. If toddy be boiled 

 nicely, and if slices of ash-coloured pumpkin be boiled in 

 it — the broth, when it is seasoned and vised, will create a 

 wonderful power to the stomach to digest any amount 

 of food. If, when the south-wind blows, toddy be collect- 

 ed, strained and poured in a pot, and be boiled until it gets the 

 consistency and colour of Margosa-oil — then be poured either in a 

 new pot or a vessel of Palmyra leaf, the mouth well covered, and 

 the vessel be then exposed to smoke or buried in the earth — the 



