THE COCO-NUT PALM {COCOS N UCIFERA , LINN.). 329 



the most elaborate of his houses with this string, and uses not a single 

 nail in the whole edifice. If he wants to make a ceremonial gift it 

 cannot take more magnificent form than a great ball of the finest 

 coco-nut string. 



I have hitherto spoken of the uses made of coco-nut palms by 

 Pacific islanders ; and time fails to tell much of other uses made in 

 other parts of the world. But there are just two points in connexion 

 with Ceylon which I should like to mention. 



There one of the chief uses, by natives, of the coco-nut palm is 

 the extraction of toddy from the young flower-spikes, which to-day, 

 when fermented, becomes arrack. 



In Ceylon the more artistic native turns the young coco-nut 

 leaf to marvellous decorative use. At the time of the coronation of 

 King Edward the natives built a large and really beautiful pavilion 

 practically entirely of these young leaves (fig. 130). 



To return to the uses made of the coco-nut in the Pacific islands : 

 hitherto I have confined myself chiefly to the uses by natives and 

 for their own purposes, but even of such uses have hitherto failed to 

 mention one of the most important. 



Long before the advent of Europeans to those parts oil was doubtless 

 extracted by the natives from the nuts ; and this oil, generally after 

 being heavily scented with sandal-wood, was used by them for anointing 

 their hair and bodies. When Europeans first arrived in the islands 

 they came to get sandal-wood and any other marketable merchandise 

 which they could lay hands on. They had to content themselves 

 for the most part with pearl shell, beche-de-mer, and other raw produce 

 of the sea. But gradually it was found that there was one thing which 

 the natives produced primarily for their own use, but which could 

 be profitably exported ; and this was coco-nut oil. The captains 

 of the whalers and other ships which called at the islands in early 

 times almost always tried to get a few casks of coco-nut oil from the 

 native chiefs. A little later the Wesley an missionaries established 

 themselves in the islands, and they soon found that the readiest 

 means to collect money, or rather money's worth, from the converted 

 natives, for the support of the mission, was in the form of coco-nut 

 oil. Hence a regular practice of collecting this oil for other than their 

 own uses was started by the natives. 



Still later, when Europeans had more firmly established them- 

 selves in the islands, it was recognized that the extracted oil in casks 

 or barrels was a difficult thing to handle. The new plan of cutting 

 out the " meat " of the coco-nut, drying it, and exporting it in the 

 form of " copra " — the oil from which was afterwards expressed by 

 suitable mills — was adopted. Thus was started the trade in copra 

 which has now reached such huge dimensions. 



VOL, xxxix, 



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