COCOA-NUT FIBRE OR COIR. 111 
midribs, tied together, are sometimes used as brooms for the 
decks of ships, as the fibres of the stalk are woody, brittle, and 
difficult to clean. 
The leaves are also in other places plaited into mats and 
screens, and also made into baskets; and combs are said by 
Mr. Bennett to be made of the midrib of the leaflets in the 
Friendly Islands. In the Laccadive Islands mats are made of 
the Cocoa-nut leaf, cut out of the heart of the tree just before 
the unfolding of the leaf, though this involves the loss of the 
bunch of fruit which comes out with each leaf. It is probable 
that the leaves of the chouk or unproductive trees are chiefly 
employed. These mats are, however, of fine quality, and much 
esteemed when exported. In these islands they are employed 
for the sails of the smaller boats. 
Though the Cocoa-nut is best known, for the fibrous cover- 
ing of its nuts which is so well known under the name of 
Coir, it also produces a downy fibre which is used to stop 
bleeding from wounds. This is altogether of a more delicate 
nature, and forms a kind of network, which is beautifully white, 
and even transparent, when young. It is thus seen at the 
bases of the young fronds; but as these attain maturity, this 
natural matting becomes coarser, tough, and of a brownish 
colour. It may be stripped off the tree in large pieces, which 
are used both in India and Ceylon as strainers for palm wine 
or cocoa-nut oil, or for straining sago or arrow-root. Mr. Ellis 
describes it as “consisting of long and tough fibres which 
regularly diverge from both sides of the petiole of the leaf. 
Sometimes there appear to be two layers of fibres, which cross 
each other, and the whole is cemented with a still finer, fibrous, 
and adhesive substance: the singular manner in which the 
fibres are attached to each other, causes this curious substance, 
woven in the loom of nature, to present to the eye a remarka- 
ble resemblance to cloth spun and woven by human ingenuity” 
(vol. i, p. 53). This is very similar to the arrangement of the 
Ejoo fibre, which has been already described, but in which both 
coarse and fine fibres are intermixed. 
The husk or rind of the Cocoa is thick and full of fibres, 
which in their separated state are so well known by the names 
of Coir or Khair. In order to remove this husk, an iron spike, 
or sharp piece of hard wood, is fixed in the ground. The nut 
