246 



HISTORy OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



of gum masticli is dissolved in it. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Hermanstadt it is distilled from 

 prunes. The Rakia of the coast of Dalniatia is 

 also drawn from the husks of the grape, mixed 

 with aromatics ; and a similar word is employed 

 by the mountain Tartars to distinguish an in- 

 toxicating liquor from sloes, dog-berries, elder- 

 berries, wild grapes, plums, &c. Arrack is also 

 made from milk. " Ariki or Arki; this the Tar- 

 tars and Calmucks call the brandy which they 

 distil from mare's or cow's milk. They put the 

 milk in raw ox-hides, sewn into bags, and then 

 let it grow sour and thick. They afterwards 

 shake it so long till a thick cream settles on it; 

 this they take oflf and dry it in the sun, and 

 treat their guests with it, and the sour milk they 

 either drink or distil the said brandy fi-oni it. 

 The sour milk which they drink they call hv,- 

 misse." — ( Stahlenuurg' s Account of Siberia and 

 Tarta/ry.) From the very extended use of the 

 corruption of the word uruq, designating ardent 

 spirits, we may infer, that the art of distillation 

 was discovered in Arabia, and thence dissemi- 

 nated over the old world. 



Sweet juice is extracted from the unexpanded 

 flower in the following manner : A man, in col- 

 loquial language called a " toddy drawer," cuts 

 off the point of the spadix, and ties the stump 

 ■firmly round with a ligature. It is then daily 

 beaten with a stick, which operation is supposed 

 to determine the sap to the wounded part. Un- 

 der this management, the juice begins to flow in 

 a few days from the cut surface of the flower, and 

 is carefully collected in an earthen vessel, which 

 is suspended from the spathe. A thin portion 

 of the flower and spathe is sliced oif daily, and 

 the end of the stump is bound with a ligature. 

 A good healthy blossom will give from two to 

 four English pints of sweet juice daily, and some 

 flowers will continue to yield juice for about 

 four or five weeks. Hence there are frequently 

 two spathes on one tree, yielding toddy at the 

 same time. 



The mode by which a toddy drawer ascends 

 the tree is as follows : He takes the dried stem 

 of a creeping plant, and forms it into a circle of 

 about a foot diameter, into which he puts his 

 feet. He then raises himself up a little on the 

 stem of the tree, by means of his hands, and sub- 

 sequently supports his whole weight upon the 

 feet and the connecting ligature. By the alter- 

 nate motion of his hands and feet, he reaches the 

 top. The ordinary implements of a toddy 

 drawer are, the shell of a large gourd, capable of 

 containing several pints of sweet juice, and a 

 broad knife, which he suspends to a belt tied 

 round his waist. In Bombay, the stem is some- 

 times notched on each side, to enable the toddy 

 drawer to ascend the tree. The more common 

 mode of ascent is there performed by putting a 

 piece of cloth loosely round the body of the 



toddy drawer and the trunk of the tree. Under 

 these circumstances, he presses the soles of the 

 feet close to the stem, while he at the same time 

 raises the encircling band, and thereby gains the 

 ascent of a few inches at a time. 



But when it is intended to draw juice fi-om a 

 "tope" or cluster of trees, the toddy drawer 

 connects the heads of a great number of trees, 

 by means of the stems of creeping plants, of which 

 a gTcat many grow in Ceylon. In some districts, 

 coir-rope is used in place of these creepers. The 

 toddy drawer selects a tree of easy access, near to 

 the centre of the tope, the trunk of which he 

 surrounds with a number of bands made of some 

 creepers, each at about a foot distance. He then 

 ascends by means of these bands, and passes 

 along, from tree to tree, upon the connecting 

 stems, assisted by the horizontal leaves, collect- 

 ing as he proceeds the sweet juice, which he 

 pours into the shell of the gourd suspended from 

 his waist, and conveys it to the ground by means 

 of a line. The gourd is emptied by a person on 

 the ground, and drawn up by the man on the 

 tree to be filled. 



Juice is seldom drawn from a cocoa nut tope 

 above six or seven months at a time, as this ope- 

 ration is supposed to exhaust the trees. During 

 the intervening period, nuts are produced. 



Toddy. This is the name given by the Eng- 

 lish to the sweet juices which are extracted from 

 the different species of the palm tribe, including 

 that of the cocoa nut tree. It is perhaps a cor- 

 ruption of tari or taree, the Mussulman name of 

 the juice of the Palmyra palm, of which tar or 

 tal is the Sanscrit name. Ba, which literally 

 means juice, is tlie Singhalese name of the fluid 

 extracted from the flower of a cocoa nut tree. 

 Sometimes it is called mee-ra (honey or sweet 

 juice), when prepared for making_;a^e>y. Among 

 the inhabitants of the maritime provinces of 

 Ceylon, it is frequently denominated suri, which 

 is said to be a Sanscrit word. With the above 

 explanation, the words toddy, ra, mee-ra, and 

 suri, may be used synonymously. Fresh drawn 

 juice is sweet, and has a peculiar flavour, in con- 

 sequence of some extractive matter it contains ; 

 and, in general, it operates as a laxative. When 

 it is intended to distil arrack from suri, the toddy 

 drawers seldom change or clean the pots into 

 which it is received, hence the juice soon fer- 

 ments, and emits an acid smell. In a half-fer- 

 mented state, suri is much relished by some 

 Europeans. When it has become, by fermenta- 

 tion, highly intoxicating, the European soldiers,- 

 and the dissipated portion of the natives, drink 

 it freely. To render this beverage acrid, the sol- 

 diers occasionally add green chillies (Capsicum 

 frutescens ) to it. 



Is it not very probable that the " strong drink" 

 mentioned in scripture was 'mee-ra, drawn fi'om 

 the flower or terminal bud of some of the pahn 



