OF rOREST-TPtEES. 



373 



operations of nature, causes, and effects, with the greatest and exactest BOOK [V- 

 axpiSua imaginable. But a wise and a thinhing man can need none of '^--'^'^^ 

 these topics ; in every hedge, and every field, they are before him ; and 

 yet we do not admire them, because they are common and obvious: thus cic. de Nat. 

 we fall into the j ust reproach given by one of the philosophers (intro- 



That it may appear how the whole Palm-tree is serviceable to human life, nothing is super- 

 fluous, but all substantially profitable, from the deepest root to the highest leaves: the 

 root (as hath been said before, where we spoke of the virtues of the other parts) charked, 

 gives an excellent temper to iron ; the boughs and leaves, made up with a wick, serve 

 for a torch ; (called by them chuli ;) with this, travellers are secure from all danger of ser- 

 pents, which abound in India; these are of exquisite poison, and their multitude makes 

 them frequent the roads, and assault passengers. They fly from the light of this chuli; 

 of another service when they fish in the rivers, instead of a candle, as is usual in Portugal. 

 Of the leaves besides, are made great parasols, capable to shelter two persons from the 

 sun or rain ; these require a man to carry them, (there are persons deputed for that office,) 

 and are called boy de sombrero ; small portable ones there are for the same use, none 

 walking in the street, winter or summer, without great or little parasols. The leaves have 

 another use; of them are made coverings for their palanquins or litters, in which one per- 

 son is commodiously carried, and defended from the rain and sun. Some Palm-trees afl^ord 

 leaves called ol has, which serve for books and paper; with a small iron pencil instead of 

 a pen, they open and grave the letters upon the leaf or olha, without the use of ink, as 

 fast and as easily, as the swiftest writer. The leaves of the tree Cajura dried, remain of 

 a lively white colour, which are made into hats, of great account, though cheap, being so 

 becoming, so accurately wrought and light, that every body, the viceroy not excepted, de- 

 sires to wear them : the Indians call them palhate. The bark of tht; Poyo, or twig on which 

 grow the fair clusters of Coco.is, being of a thicker and stronger substance, furnishes the 

 common people, particularly the bandarins who dress the Palm-trees, with caps made like 

 English ordinary riding-caps. 



" To end the discourse, I shall observe (what challenges a reflection) the natural fabric 

 of the Palm-trees ; that the trunk being very slender and disproportionable to the tallness, 

 the whole weight of the boughs, (called Palms,) and of the fruit, being at the top, in a 

 manner, at the vertical point of the slim body, the boughs, as they grow displaying them- 

 selves, and amongst them hanging the fair clusters of Cocoas, the shock of winds, should, 

 without doubt, easily break and ruin this disproportioned machine. Provident Nature, 

 against this, hath for every new birth of those boughs, provided swathes, of the same mat- 

 ter and texture of the Palm-tree, not unlike coarse cloth, or canvass : with these the 

 branches and what grows there, are swathed so strongly and securely, as to defy any 

 violence of winds to disjoint them : they are liable to be shaken, yet not where they have 

 this girdle, which to break is a work of iron. By these the Palm-tree, as a tender 

 mother, gathers her children about her, as secure from being lost and scattered, as they 

 are well defended any violence of wind, which would tear and force them from her 

 bosom." 



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