102 COCOA-NUT PALM. 
caulking ships, as stuffing for cushions, and as tinder. Ejoo was 
sent to the Exhibition of 1851, via Singapore, from Malacca, 
as separated from stiff fibres, and as prepared for manufacture or 
export, and prepared as sinnet, or coarse line for making ropes or 
cables. The portion belonging to each leaf having apparently 
been cut off close to the sheath, and each measuring about 
three feet in breadth and two feet in length. The bundles of 
the coarse and fine fibres are about six feet in length, and about 
twelve inches in diameter, neatly tied up with split cane. Inter- 
spersed among the coarser, there are some finer fibres, some- 
thing like black wool. The sinnet is coarse, but strong, and 
broke with a weight of 85 1lb., when coir of about the same size 
broke with 75 Ib.; but the comparison is not very exact. 
Mr. Kyd, the celebrated ship-builder of Calcutta, possessed 
a cable made of the Ejoo fibre, which he had had for four 
years exposed to all weathers, and which raised the bow anchor 
of a merchant ship of 500 tons, buried in the sands of the 
Hoogly; in two previous attempts at which, three Russian 
hempen cables had given way. 
Besides making strong and durable cordage, the Ejoo fibre 
is no doubt applicable to a variety of purposes for which horse- 
hair and bristles are now employed. 
Cocoa-nut TREE aNp Fisre (Coir; Cocos nucifera). 
Bengalee—Narikel. Hindee—Naryul. Tam.—Tenga. 
The Cocoa-nut, little if at all known to the Ancients, was 
particularly noticed by the Arabs, being by them called Jouz- 
hindee or Indian nut; but at much earlier periods, in Sanscrit 
works, by the name of Nari- and Nali-kera. It is, no doubt, 
the “great nut of India,” which Sir John Maundeville men- 
tions among the trees of that country, as producing nuts as 
large as men’s heads. In the East, where it is indigenous, it 
must from the earliest times have attracted the attention of 
the inhabitants. But it would be impossible now to distinguish 
the trees which have been introduced from those which are 
now growing apparently wild, on the various tropical coasts 
and islands where they are found in such vast abundance. 
As, for instance, in the Maldive and the Laccadive Islands ; also, 
