THE COCOA NUT TREE. 



251 



moved from the fire. When cocoa nuts cannot 

 be procured, ghee, (clarified butter) is used as a 

 substitute in the preparation of this delicious 

 dish. In Bengal, and, I believe, over great part 

 of the peninsula of India, curry is chiefly pre- 

 pared by frying the meat with butter or ghee. 

 The Ceylon or cocoa nut curry possesses much 

 of the flavour of the nut ; it has a light-yellow 

 colour, and is easily digested, the oily part of the 

 mixture being seldom too abundant. 



But the chief product of the kernel of the 

 cocoa nvit is an excellent oil : and, to extract it, 

 two different processes are employed ; namely, 

 decoction and expression. When the former 

 process is followed, the fresh kernel is finely 

 rasped; the raspings are next washed with 

 water, which assumes a milky appearance ; and, 

 by decoction, yields a limpid oil. If the emul- 

 sion be exposed for a night, it separates sponta- 

 neously into an oily and a watery portion, and 

 the oily part is purified by a very short boiling. 

 To separate the oil, the operator, who is gene- 

 rally a female, lays the palm of her left hand 

 flat upon the surface of the fluid ; a portion of 

 oil adheres to the hand, which is brushed off' 

 into a vessel by the right hand. The oil made 

 in this manner is nearly as colourless as water, 

 and when newly prepared does not smell offen- 

 sively. In the course of a few days, particularly 

 if exposed to the atmosphere, it emits a disagree- 

 able odour. On an average ten nuts are stated 

 by Mr Bartolacci to yield about a quart of oil ; 

 but Koster, who made the experiment, says, 

 that thirty-two nuts rendered him only 3 lb. of 

 pure oil. 



Compression is the process chiefly adopted 

 when cocoa nut oil is prepared in the large way. 

 After clearing the nut of the husk, the kernel is 

 exposed, which is effected by breaking the shell 

 with a crooked knife, — an operation which is ge- 

 nerally performed by one stroke. A large por- 

 tion of the watery part of the kernel is dissipated 

 by exposing it to the sun for a few days, during 

 which period it acquires a considerable degree of 

 rancidity. In this state the kernel is called 

 copra or copperas. The oil is extracted fi-om 

 copra by grinding it in a very clumsy mill, 

 which is worked by bullocks. Oil has for some 

 years past been extracted by government from 

 copra in Wge quantities at Colombo, by means 

 of a steam-engine. The value of copperas ex- 

 ported from Ceylon, in 1813, amounted to 

 27,976 rix dollars. 



The substance which remains after the oil has 

 tieen extracted from copra is called pohak, which 

 serves well to feed pigs, poultry, &c. 



Ceylon exports annually a great quantity of 

 cocoa nuts, chiefly to India. In 1809, the num- 

 ber amounted to 2,977,275. The medium price 

 may be stated at about 3s. 6d. per hundred, or 

 nearly one halfpenny a-piece. According to 



Koster, the value of cocoa nuts in Brazil is about 

 Ss. 6d. per hundred, or a little more than ^ths 

 of a penny each. In Ceylon they pay an export 

 duty of five per cent. These nuts are sometimes 

 brought to this country from the West Indies. 

 The captain^ of ships use them instead of wed- 

 ges of timber, to fill up the vacuities between the 

 casks and other packages which compose their 

 cai-goes. On this account the freightage of the 

 nuts adds little to their original price. Cocoa 

 nut oil may be exported at the rate of one shil- 

 ling per gallon ; and, at this price, a large quan- 

 tity is annually sent to different parts of India. 

 In Java, where it is an article of importation, 

 the market price is usually about six Spanish 

 dollars a-picul, which is equal to about Is. 9d. 

 per gallon. Within these few years, it has been 

 imported into Great Britain, where the same 

 quantity has been sold as high as from 5s. to 6s. 

 The quantity exported from Ceylon, in 1813 

 amounted to 27,265 measures, each measure 

 about two pints ; value in rix dollars 7962. 



In Ceylon this oil is universally used both by 

 Europeans and the indigenous inhabitants, as a 

 lamp oil. The natives bum it in a section of the 

 cocoa nut shell, or in a small earthen vessel. 

 Some of the upper ranks have brass lamps four 

 or five feet high, which have several flat basons, 

 with projecting beaks, affixed to a vertical stalk. 

 The oil is introduced into the basons, the beaks of 

 which are furnished with cotton-wick. Torches 

 are prepared in Siam, by drying elephants' 

 dung, soaking it in cocoa nut oil, and then co- 

 vering the mass with long dry leaves tied at short 

 distances, with shreds of bamboo. Mr Deville 

 of the Strand, London, who has paid much at- 

 tention to the illuminating qualities of different 

 gases, says that the gas light from cocoa nut 

 oil has so far the quality of day-light, that 

 with it the difference between flowers of sulphur 

 and wheat flour may be easily distinguished, 

 which he was unable to do with any other arti- 

 ficial light. Cocoa nut oil is now manufactured 

 into candles in this country, which closelj' re- 

 semble those made of wax, and for which they 

 are a cheap and excellent substitute. 



The Singhalese, and indeed a great proportion 

 of the inhabitants of Asia, use considerable quan- 

 tities of this oil, for the purpose of external in- 

 unction. It is not easy to ascertain precisely 

 the benefits they expect to result from this prac- 

 tice. Some of the Orientals say, that inunction 

 is used for the puipose of preserving their skins 

 fi'om the sun and wind. They sometimes anoint 

 their bodies previously to going into the bath, 

 probably for the purpose of diminishing the 

 shock they might feel by a sudden reduction of 

 the temperature of the skin : more commonly, 

 however, the inunction takes place upon coming 

 out of the water. The oil is applied with a con- 

 siderable degree of friction ; or, as Dampier des- 



