TODDY 159 



stem, refastens the black pot in its place and hurries 

 down to make the ascent of another tree, and so 

 on until his tail is full of a foaming white liquor 

 spotted with drowned honey bees and fining the 

 surrounding air with a rank odour of fermentation. 

 This liquor is " toddy." 



If I were a Darwin I would not leave that word 

 until I had traced the agencies which wafted it 

 over sea and land from the shores of Hindustan to 

 the Scottish coast, where it first took root and, 

 quickly adapting itself to a strange environment, 

 developed into a new and vigorous species, spread 

 like the thistle and became a national institution. 

 At first it was only the Briton's way of mouthing 

 a common native word, " tadi " (pronounced ta-dee), 

 which meant palm juice ; but it became current in 

 its present shape as early as 1673, when the traveller 

 Fryer wrote of " the natives singing and roaring 

 all night long, being drunk with toddy, the wine 

 of the cocoe." About a century later Burns sang, 



The lads and lasses, blythely bent. 

 To mind baith saul and body, 

 Sit round the table, weel content, 

 And steer about the toddy. 



Between these I can find no vestigia, but imagina- 

 tion easily fills the gap. I see a company of jovial 

 Scots, met in Calcutta, or Surat, on St. Andrew's 

 Day. European wines and beer are expensive, 

 whisky not obtainable at all ; but the skilful 

 khansamah makes up a punch with toddy spirit, 

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