248 



niSTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



phants and horses, when they are supposed to 

 be sick. From the number of empty cherry- 

 brandy bottles found in the king's palace, when 

 the British troops captured Kandy, it was in- 

 ferred that he occasionally indulged in the use 

 of spirits, when they were so far disguised or 

 medicated as to enable him to escape the scandal 

 of his subjects. 



Batavian arrack is made from a mixture of 

 molasses, palm-wine, and rice, in the following 

 proportions : 



100 parts of these materials yield 23^ of dis- 

 tilled proof arrack. 



The rice is first boiled ; after cooling, a quan- 

 tity of yeast is added to it, and pressed into 

 baskets. In this condition, it is then placed over 

 a tub or tubs, for eight days, during which time 

 a liquor flows abundantly from the mixture. At 

 the end of that time, the liquor which has sub- 

 sided is added to a mixture of molasses and palm- 

 wine. The mixture remains in a small vessel 

 for one day only, when it is removed into large 

 fermenting vats, in which it remains for seven. 

 The liquor is finally removed into the still ; and, 

 according to the number of distillations it un- 

 dergoes, becomes arrack of the first, second, or 

 third quality in commerce. The above account 

 of the preparation of arrack is exti'acted from 

 Mr Crawfurd's work on the Indian Archipelago. 

 Mr Marsden informs us, that the " palm-wine" 

 used in this kind of arrack is obtained from the 

 cocoa nut tree, and that arrack of the first quality 

 may be purchased for about sixty Spanish dol- 

 lai's ; second for fifty ; and the third for thirty, 

 each leaguer of IGO gallons. At this rate, the 

 best arrack may be procured for 20d. per gallon. 

 It is at present manufactured chiefly for domes- 

 tic consumption. 



The phrase " pariah-arrack" is often used to 

 designate a spirit distilled in the peninsula of 

 India, which is said to be often rendered un- 

 wholesome, by an admixture of ganja f canna- 

 bis sativaj, and a species of datura, with the in- 

 tention of increasing its intoxicating quality. It 

 is not clear, whether the term pariah-arrack be 

 colloquially employed to designate an inferior 

 spirit, or an adulterated compound. This li- 

 quor is sometimes distilled from cocoa nut toddy, 

 and at other times from a mixture of jagery, 

 water, and the barks of various trees. The chief 

 of the barks so used are those of the mimosa fer- 

 rvrjinea, and the phcenix spec. The bark of the 

 mimosa leucophlea is employed for a similar pur- 

 pose. 



Suri is the j'east commonly used by bakers in 

 Ceylon. By allowing it to pass into the acetous 

 fermentation, an excellent vinegar is obtained 



A great variety of vegetable substances are 

 pickled with vinegar of this kind. 



When it is intended to extract jagery from 

 suri, great care is taken to prevent it from fer- 

 menting. Jagery is perhaps a corruption of the 

 Singhalese word Hackarur or Sackarur, the H 

 and S being often used indiscriminately in that 

 language. A Sanscrit scholar has suggested, that 

 sugar may be derived from the word ^oo»- (sweet,) 

 the superlative of which is segoor, sweetest, hence 

 very probably is the origin of the Arabian word 

 siikkar. The earthenware pot into which the 

 suri is received is emptied twice or thrice in 

 twenty-four hours. After this operation, the pot 

 is always well cleaned, then dried, and a small 

 quantity of chunam (liiue) is thrown into it, be- 

 fore being replaced. Sometimes a portion of the 

 bark of a tree, whose name I do not recollect, is 

 introduced into the receiving vessel, instead of 

 chunam. The lime perhaps contributes to check 

 the progress of fermentation. Almost immedi- 

 ately after the mee-ra is drawn from the tree, it 

 is filtered through a poi-tion of the reticulated 

 substance found at the base of the leaf. 



The juice is then slowly boiled in an earthen 

 vessel, until it becomes light-coloured, and ac- 

 quires a considerable degree of consistency. 

 While still warm, and semifluid, it is poured 

 into sections of cocoa nut shells, where it soon 

 becomes solid. Twenty-four ounces of jagery 

 may he procured from a gallon of mee-ra. I 

 state the quantity of jagery which mee-ra yields, 

 on the authority of Mr Bartolacci, who paid 

 much attention to this subject. Forbes, in his 

 Oriental ^lemoirs, saj's, that three quarts of tari 

 (toddy,) when boiled down, wiU yield a pound 

 of sugar, — a proportion not materially difl^erent 

 from that given by Mr Bartolacci. It would ap- 

 pear that mee-ra is richer in saccharine matter 

 than juice expressed from the sugar-cane in the 

 West Indies. Dr Moseley, in his History of 

 Sugar, says, " we consider a pound of sugar from 

 a gallon of cane-juice as good yielding." Ac- 

 cording to Mr Crawfurd, cane-juice in Java 

 yields, on an average, twenty-five per cent, of 

 sugar. Jagery contains both the crystallizable 

 portion of the juice, and a quantity of molasses 

 or liquid sugar ; but, by a subsequent operation, 

 they can be, in a great measure, separated. This 

 coarse sugar is generally made into little loaves, 

 liaving the shape of a hemispherical vase, from 

 the form of the vessel in which it cools. It has 

 a deep chocolate colour ; and, when broken, pre- 

 sents many clear shining particles of sugar. In 

 the Malay language, jagery is denominated ^oofa 

 or goora itan (black sugar or black sweet). 



The ordinary price of jagery is about 2d. per 

 pound. It is the only sugar used by the native 

 inhabitants, and no other is prepared in Ceylon. 

 They enjoy the juice of the sugar-cane, by masti- 

 cating the gi-een slioots, but in no other way, al- 



