76 



Sandal-Wood and its Commercial Importance. 



Canara being the principal districts. The tree is usually twenty- 

 iive feet high, and when allowed to attain a greater height its 

 trunk is generally found rotten at the core. The natives have 

 an idea that the trees ought to be felled in the wane of the 

 moon ; an idea Europeans are wont to laugh at, though they 

 might look a little more closely into the matter before doing so. 

 I remember that in tropical America I often heard the wood- 

 cutters declare it to be absolute folly to fell timber whilst the 

 moon was on the increase, as it was sure to become rotten very 



BRANCH OF 8ANTALTTM ALBUM. (NAT. SIZE.) 



soon, being then in full sap. The bark of the sandal-tree should 

 be taken off immediately, and the trunks cut into billets two feet 

 long. These should then be buried in a piece of dry ground 

 for two months, during which time the white ants will eat away 

 all the outerwoou, without touching the heart, constituting the 

 nandal of commerce; the billets ought then to be taken up 

 a nd smoothed, and, according to their size, sorted into three 

 kinds. The deeper the colour the higher is the perfume; and 



