162 THE COCONUT TREE 



which has its devotees, but the rustic, as a rule, 

 prefers quantity to quality. We are often told that 

 the British Government taught the people of India 

 to drink, but the scene that I have tried to describe 

 is indigenous conviviality, much older than any 

 European connection with the country. 



Is it any wonder that the coconut has become an 

 emblem of fertility and prosperity and all good luck ? 

 When a new house is building you will see a high 

 pole over the doorway, bearing coconuts at the top, 

 with an umbrella spread over them. Do not ask 

 the owner the meaning of the sign, for he does not 

 know. He does not think about such matters, but 

 he feels about them and he knows that that is the 

 right thing to do. Besides, he might ask you why 

 you nail a horseshoe over your door. The difference 

 between us and him is that we do such things in 

 jest, no longer believing in them. They are the 

 husks of a dead faith with us. But the Hindu's 

 faith is very living still. So, when he breaks a 

 coconut at the launching of a pattimar, he is a 

 gainer in hope, if nothing else ; while we squander 

 our champagne and gain nothing. That nut follows 

 him even to the grave, or burning ground, with 

 mystic significances which I cannot explain. I have 

 been told that, when a very holy man dies, who 

 always clothed himself in ashes and never profaned 

 his hands with work, his disciples sometimes break 

 a coconut over his head. If the spirit can escape 

 from the body through the sutures of the skull 



