1221 NATURAL AND ECONOMICAL HISTORY 
ration of different parts of the tree. Soap is very little used 
bj the native washermen in Ceylon. 
Boats are rowed with the centre-rib of the leaf, in which 
operation it forms a substitute for paddles. The end of 
this part of the leaf is sometimes well-bruised, and thereby 
converted into a brush, that may be used for a variety of 
purposes. 
The spaths, or fibrous covering of the blossoms, are in- 
flammable; on that account they are often employed as 
torches. In some parts of India this part of the tree is 
soaked in water, and converted into coarse cordage, with 
which the thatch of houses is tied. 
Many useful products are derived from the flower and 
fruit of this tree. By a peculiar manipulation the flower 
yields a rich saccharine juice, convertible into arrack or 
sugar. The word arrack^ or arak^ or rack,, is probably a 
corruption of the Arabic word uruq, spirit or juice, indefi- 
nitely ; whence we may infer that the art of distillation was 
conveyed from Arabia to India and the eastern archipelago. 
We are informed that, in the Ladrone Islands, it is called 
uraca. In Ceylon, and many other parts of India, the 
term arrack is employed in a sense similar to that with 
which we use the phrase spiritous liquors. Distilled spi- 
rits, of whatever kind, obtain this denomination through a 
great part of Asia, and along the northern coast of Africa. 
In the Singhalese language, sugar, manufactured from 
palm-juice, is called hackurur^ which is commonly corrupted 
by foreigners into jagery, and may be the origin of the 
Arabic word sukker, A Sanscrit scholar has suggested, 
that sugar may be derived from the Sanscrit word goor 
(sweet) ; the superlative of which, he tells me, is seogoor 
(sweetest). 
Sweet juice is extracted from the unexpanded flower, in 
the following manner : — A man, in colloquial language. 
