124 NATURAL AND ECONOMICAL HISTORY 
But when it is intended to draw juice from a " tope" or 
cluster of trees, the toddy-drawer collects a quantity of 
some creeping plants, with which he connects the heads of 
a great number of trees. In some districts, coir-rope is 
used in place of these creepers. There are a number of 
species of creepers, suitable for this purpose, which have 
stems many yards long. The toddy-drawer selects a tree, 
of easy access, near to the centre of the tope, the trunk of 
which he surrounds with a number of bands made of some 
creepers, each at about a foot distance. He then ascends, 
by means of these bands, and passes along, from tree to 
tree, upon the connecting stems, assisted by the horizontal 
leaves, collecting, as he proceeds, the sweet juice, which he 
pours into the shell of the gourd, suspended from his waist^ 
and conveys it to the ground by means of a line. The 
gourd is emptied by a person ready to receive it, and the 
line is drawn up by the man on the tree. 
Juice is seldom drawn from a coco-nut tope, above six 
or seven months at a time, as this operation is supposed to 
exhaust the trees. During the intervening period, nuts are 
produced. 
Toddy is the name given by the English to the sweet 
juices which are extracted from the different species of the 
palm tribe, including that of the coco-nut tree. It is per- 
haps a corruption of tari or taree, the Mussulman name of 
the juice of the Palmyra palm, of which tar or tal is the 
Sanscrit name *. Ra, which literally means juice, is the 
Singhalese name of the fluid extracted from the flower of a 
coco-nut tree. Sometimes it is called Mee-ra (honey or 
sweet juice); seldom, however, except when prepared for 
making jagery. Among the inhabitants of the maritime 
provinces of Ceylon, it is frequently denominated suriy 
which is said to be a Sanskrit word. With the above ex- 
* Bochakan's Journey ^[through Mysore, &c, 
