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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XL 



bought for half a rixdollar, but those that are trained and 

 know a few tricks cannot be had under two rixdollars. 



There are in the island of Ceilon many and beautiful trees 

 called cocoanut trees, from which as I said above, a beverage 

 is drawn called sieve. In Amboina it is called sagawehr*' 

 in Surat terri.\ The tree can be utilised in about seventy 

 ways. When the liquor gets old they make vinegar of it. 

 The nuts when young are green, and have water inside, very 

 sweet, and as clear as crystal; J when you cut them open the 

 water spirts up to a certain height ; but when old, the water 

 inside the nut becomes solid, and a kernel grows about as 

 thick as the finger, of which milk can be made ; you can also 

 make oil of it. The natives cover their houses with the 

 branches, and also make their utensils thereof. When the 

 nuts are old they are put into the ground, and a plant grows 

 out of the nut, which, after five or six years, bears fruit. If 

 the natives had not this tree, they would be poor indeed.. 

 But the monkeys, of whom there is a large number, as I have 

 before remarked, do much damage to the trees. 



There are also beautiful cannelles, or cinnamon trees ; all 

 the cinnamon, and more than is wanted, comes solely from 

 this island. In 1648, when in garrison at Negwnbo, about 

 twenty-six miles from Punte de Galle, I was during three 

 months often ordered into the forest, as a rule, with twenty- 

 five men ; of the niggers, however, or heathen, about four 

 hundred went to the forest. When we marched out in the 

 morning a drummer came with us who had to beat the drum 

 very loud in the forest, and we fired volleys from time to time 

 on account of the elephants. In the meantime the natives had 

 to peel cinnamon, for cinnamon is nothing else but the bark of 

 the tree, which can be peeled, just as bark is peeled from trees 



* Sagaweer (Dutch ed.). See Hobson-Jobson, s. v. " Saguire." 

 f Toddy. See Hob son-Job son, s. v. 



I Johaim von der Behr (p. 49) says, that the drinking to excess of cocoanut 

 water was very injurious to newly arrived Europeans, causing 1 paralysis of 

 the legs, which could be cured only by inserting the limbs in hot sand 

 several hours a day for some months. 



