INTRODUCTION 



xiii 



strongly recommended. Andes' Kokosbutter describes 

 methods of making the food products which are largely 

 responsible for the great recent increase in the demand 

 for the better grades of copra and coco-nut oil. 



In statements as to money I have, as a rule, made 

 use of local terms, and the same is true with regard to 

 measures of various kinds. The more frequent use of 

 the metric than of English standards will probably 

 confuse nobody. English, American, and French money 

 are likewise generally familiar. The Philippine peso 

 of one hundred centavos is half of the American dollar. 



There are botanical grounds, so strong that no 

 doubt should remain on the subject, for the belief that 

 the coco -nut palm was a native of the American 

 tropics. 1 In prehistoric times it did not occupy all the 

 available parts of this region, its introduction into the 

 Greater Antilles, for instance, where its cultivation is 

 now an important industry, having been accomplished 

 by the Spaniards. The American aborigines had many 

 cultivated food plants, such as cassava, potato, sweet 

 potato, yams, ya$tia, taro, and maize, and the coco-nut 

 was far from being one of the most important of 

 them. 



The coco-nut was introduced into Polynesia a very 

 long time ago ; long in a merely human sense, however, 

 for it is highly probable that its introduction was the 

 act of man, and that it was a deliberate contribution to 

 the resources of the Island World. Here it became 

 the crop of first importance. It made life easy on islets 

 which without it must have been quite uninhabitable. 

 Polynesia had little vegetable wealth, and the coco-nut 

 supplied a folk poor in crops with food, drink, fuel, 

 shelter, and sometimes clothing, and served a host of 

 minor uses. In these days of commerce, it is the chief 

 export of this region. Its culture naturally spread. 

 Originating in America, it must have been carried west- 

 ward across the Pacific ; and there is good linguistic 

 evidence that its spread was in this direction. With 



1 Cook, The Origin and Distribution of the Cocoa Palm, 1901. 



