or THE COCO-NUT TREE. 
123 
called a " Toddy-drawer,''' cuts off the point of the spadix, 
and ties the stump firmly round with a ligature. It is then 
beaten with a stick ; which operation is supposed to deter- 
mine the sap to the wounded part. This process is re- 
peated for several days, cutting off daily a small portion of 
the end of the spadix. Under this management, the juice 
soon begins to flow from the cut surface of the flower, 
and is carefully collected in an earthen-ware vessel, sus- 
pended from the spathe. A thin portion of the flower 
and spathe is sliced off daily, and the end of the stump is 
bound with a ligature. A good healthy blossom will give 
from two to four English pints of sweet juice daily, and 
some flowers will continue to yield juice for about four or 
five weeks. Hence there are frequently two spaths on one 
tree, yielding toddy at the same time *. 
I may here state the mode by which a toddy-drawer 
ascends the tree. He takes the dried stem of a creeping 
plant, and forms it into a circle of about a foot diameter. 
The feet are next put into this circular band. He then 
raises himself up a little on the stem of the tree, by means 
of his hands, and subsequently supports his whole weight 
upon the' feet and the connecting ligature. By the alter- 
nate motion of his hands and feet, he reaches the top. 
The ordinary implements of a toddy-drawer, are, the shell 
of a large gourd, capable of containing several pints of 
sweet juice, and a broad knife, which he suspends to a belt 
tied round his waist. In Bombay, the stem is sometimes 
notched on each side, to enable the toddy-drawer to ascend 
the tree. 
• The Gomuti Palm yields toddy for two years, at the average rate of 
three quarts a-day." — Crawfurd on the Indian Archipelago. 
According to Lsbillaudiere, a date-palm will furnish, for upwards of 
two months in the year, six or eight litres of liquor a day, — " Account of a 
Voyage in search of Ferouse, by M Labillardiere, vol. i. p. 334. 
