THE ALCOHOL INDUSTRY. PART I. 107 



which the Spaniards gave themselves with good appetite, saying they did not miss 

 the wine of Castilla * * *.' " 



Mercado" in his work written between 1665 and 1698 mentions that in the 

 Philippines, a tuba is obtained from the coconut palm which is medicinal and 

 good for refreshing the liver; from caryota, a sweet tuba which on fermentation 

 is intoxicating; from buri, a tuba from which the natives make vinegar and By 

 boiling when fresh, a sugar which they call pacascas; and in Pampanga Province 

 a wine from the nipa. 



At the present time several different species of palms are employed 

 for the production of sap from which fermented and distilled beverages 

 are manufactured. The fresh or fermented saps the natives designate 

 by the name tuba. The fermented saps by distillation yield the alcoholic 

 drink locally known as Mno^ vino the Spanish word for wine, or alak, 

 the T'agalog word usually applied to a distilled beverage corresponding 

 to araJc or arrack of other Malaysian dialects. In many localities, the 

 unfermented palm-saps are used as a source of sugar. This sugar is 

 made by evaporating the palm-Juice by boiling in open pans or kettles in 

 much the same manner as maple sugar is prepared from the sap of the 

 maple tree in the United States. 



The three species of palms which are now most extensively utilized 

 for the sap are the nipa (Nipa frucUcans Wurmb.), which grows 

 gregariously and in great abundance throughout the Islands about the 

 mouths of estuaries of tidal rivers; the coconut (Gocos nucifera Linn.), 

 extensively cultivated throughout the Archipelago; and the buri (Cory- 

 pha elata Eoxb.) found throughout the Islands at low and medium 

 altitudes, wild and uncultivated, and also planted. 



In India, Australia, Malaya, and other places, various other species of 

 palms yield saps in abundance, which are utilized for making toddy and 

 arraJc, corresponding respectively to our tuha and bino. Among the 

 palms thus utilized may be mentioned : Arenga saccharifera Labill., the 

 sugar palm; Borassus flabellifer Linn., the Palmyra palm; Caryota urens 

 Linn., fish-tail palm; Phoenix dactylifera Linn., the date palm; and 

 Phoenix sylvestris Eoxb., the wild date palm. 



Some of these species extend to the Philippines. Arenga saccharifera 

 Labill. is locally known as caong and sometimes cabo negro.^° The 

 genus Caryota is represented by several species locally termed pugahan, 

 closely allied to C. urens Linn., while the sago palm (Metroxylon 

 rumphii Mart.) is abundant in parts of Mindanao and in some other 

 islands. As sap-producing palms, these are at present of but little 

 commercial importance in the Islands. 



On the other hand the nipa and the buri, the former extensively 

 utilized in the Philippines as a source of alcohol and alcoholic beverages, 



"Libro de Medicinas de esta Tierra, Manila (1880), 1, 50. 



'" Refers more particularly to the fiber obtained from this palm. 



