Description of the 



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Quantity of The difference in the quantity of coir manufacture 



coil" _ produced ed from a coast nut and an island nut is very consi- 

 aud Its value. 



derable. Three large coarse coast nuts \YiIl yield 

 one fb, of coir measuring 22 fathoms, whereas 10 small fine island 

 nuts go to about a lb, of coir; but this will measure 35 fathoms ; 

 2 lbs. of such j-arn measuring from 70 to 75 fathoms are made 

 up into soodies of which there are fourteen to a bundle averaging 

 about a mauad of 28 lbs. A Mangalore candy of 560 lbs. will 

 therefore be the produce of 5,600 nuts and should contain about 

 20,000 fathoms of yarn. Thus if the annual produce of a tree 

 be about 60 or 70 nuts, on an average, a maund would be the 

 produce of 4 or 5 trees and the candy that of 80 to 100 trees. 

 The actual price of coir received by the islanders is about 13 rupees 

 per candy ; the produce of 5,600 nuts : the value of the coir produce 

 of a tree would therefore be from 2 to 2| annas, and that of the 

 produce of 100 trees from 14 to 15 rupees. The average value of 

 the total raw produce of a tree bearing fruit would thus be 7 annas 

 to i a rupee, and that of a plot of 100 trees about 45 rupees. 



Manufacture The manufacture of coir is entirely entrusted to the 

 of Coir. women, the male population being frequentlj^ absent on 



fishing expeditions, or engaged in navigating their boats during the 

 season to the coast. The women never leave the islands and seem 

 industrious. "When the coir has soaked sufficiently long, it is taken out 

 of the pit and beaten v/ith a heavy mallet, when quite clean, it is ar- 

 ranged into a loose roving preparatory to being twisted ; which is 

 done between the palms of the hand in a very ingenious way so as to 

 produce a yarn of two strands at once. No mechanical aid, even of 

 the rudest description, has yet found its wa}- into these islands. 

 Neera,Jagge- A considerable number of trees are cut for the 

 juice, which is much used in its unfermented state by 

 the islanders. They are still so strict in the abstinence from all fer- 

 mented liquors, that the manufacture of toddy would not be tolerat- 

 ed in the islands. The juice is drawn frequently, and fermentation 

 is checked by chunam. When this neera, as it is called, is used in 

 the raw state, it is drunk \varm, and is sweet and thickish and said to 

 be very nutritious but it is not wholesome for strangers. What re- 

 mains after supplying the demand of the raw article is boiled into 

 jaggerj^. The jaggery of these islands is in a partially liquid state, 

 but appears highly granular and seems to contain a considerable 

 quantity of saccharine matter. It is a good deal used on the coast. 



