74 FALMITES, 



taste, but a liltle too cloying ; and becomes, like the 

 juice of the cocoanut and other cultivated palms, 

 inebriating in a few hours, owing to the rapid 

 ii i 'mentation it undergoes. When boiled in the 

 manner that the juice of the sugar-cane is, a thick 

 syrup is obtained railed Jlanistui. ll is ran U 

 boiled to the point which would produce sugar. The 

 fniit grows in large* hunches, and although rather 

 tasteless, is prw*. v ^j) a * 8 s "eHineat. 



'1 In- Jshmd of l*« iiiin- contains hut a small number 

 of trees, compared \\ it h the opposite coast Mhere it 

 is very abundant. Although it grows wild, yet those 

 vim make il their business 1o eolleet and boil the 

 juice, take much pains to cultivate it. 



The plants are thinned, so that they shall he about 12 

 feet asunder. If the juice isuutto be extracted, the palms 

 are (binned of their long leaves twice in a year, (pa- 

 ving jj leavrs mi each. These are freed from the 

 central pith, am) then doubled and fastened by split 

 rattanf, over laths of the nibong palm. In this form 

 tin \ are unffer the name of artap, used for roofing hour- 

 v>. If the leaves be large, this thatch, where not expo- 

 sed to violent winds* will last for four years, although 

 j lure wars is the average period. An orlong will 

 yu Id annually, aboui 8,(MK) leaves, the value of whieh 

 before |^ej have been converted into err tap, may be 

 ;i Uont 4 Sp, dollars. This leaf is ignited with much 

 nnre difficulty than the cocoauut leaf, whieh- is 

 used as thatch in Main bar ami Cauara, or than the 

 grasses whieh are used for the same purpose in other 

 parts of Intlitt : vet, employment of it in a tow n, 

 Mhtre much property is at stake, would he highly 

 dangerous. 



\\ hen .Wra is to be extracted and s\rup made, the 

 fruit-hearing shoot or sheath called maymg. is lop- 

 ped to within about one-third part of its length of 



