108 COCOA-NUT SAP OR TODDY. 
termed ‘Cocoa-nut milk.’ It is used either with or without 
the grated kernel in their various curries and mulligatawnies.” 
Besides these edible parts, the heart, or the very young leaves 
of this Palm, as well as of some others, is called the cabbage, 
and, according to all accounts, forms “an excellent vegetable, 
either cooked or dressed in stews, hashes, or ragouts.” 
The beverage known to Europeans as toddy or palm wine, 
is obtained from the flower-spathes, before the flowers have yet 
expanded. These are themselves astringent, and used medici- 
nally. To procure the toddy, the spathe is first tied with the 
young leaves, and is then cut a little transversely from the top, 
and beaten either with the handle of the toddy-knife or with a 
piece of hard wood. After some days, an earthen chatty or 
vessel, or a calabash, is hung to the spathe, so as to receive the 
toddy as it exudes. This is collected every morning and 
evening; the spathe being cut a little every day. 
If this palm wine is drawn early in the morning, it forms a 
pleasant drink. But fermentation takes place in the liquor a 
few hours after it has been collected, and it is then used by the 
bakers as yeast. The fermented liquor or toddy is much drank 
by the natives; at other times the spirit is distilled from it, 
and forms one of the kinds of arrack or aruk, that is, spirit. 
One hundred gallons of toddy produce by distillation, it is said, 
twenty-five of aruk. Or it may be allowed to undergo the 
acetous fermentation and produce very good vinegar. Or, in- 
stead of being allowed to ferment, the toddy may be made to 
yield jaggery or sugar. For this purpose, a supply of sweet 
toddy is procured mornings and evenings, particular care being 
taken that the vessels employed have been well cleaned and 
dried. Hight gallons of sweet toddy, boiled over a slow fire, 
yield two gallons of a lusciously sweet liquid, which is called 
Jaggery- or sugar-water; which quantity being again boiled, the 
coarse brown sugar called jaggery is produced. The lumps of 
this are separately tied up in dried banana leaves. 
Cocoa-nut oil is one of the best-known products of this 
Palm, from its extensive employment in Europe, especially for 
making the excellent candles known as Stearine. In the East, 
it is employed as a lamp-oil, and for anointing the body, 
especially after it has been rendered fragrant by mixture with 
such aromatic oils as those of sandal wood and of jessamine. 
