OF THE COCO-NUT TREE. 
135 
manufacture of coir, and for this purpose the nut ought 
not to be completely ripe. The word coir, sometimes writ- 
ten cair^ and caira, is probably derived from the Portu- 
guese substantive cairel, a periwig, or fringe. The Sin- 
ghalese word for coir is kohu. To remove the husk, an 
iron^spike, or sharp piece of hard wood, is fixed in the 
ground; the nut is then forced upon the point, which 
passes through the fibres, thereby separating the rind from 
the shell. In this manner a man can clear 1000 nuts daily. 
Coir is prepared by soaking the rind in water for several 
months, and then beating it upon a stone with a piece of 
heavy wood. On the coast of America, where a running 
stream of water is not near at hand, the coir-manufacturers 
dig holes in the sand below high water-mark, and bury the 
rind of the coco-nut, before beating it. Subsequently it is 
rubbed with the hand until the interstitial substance be 
completely separated from the fibrous portion of the husk. 
The rind of forty cocos furnished Mr Kostee with six 
pounds weight of coir. The next operation is to twist the 
fibres into yarns, which are manufactured into cordage of 
all sizes. Coir is remarkably buoyant, and well suited for 
ropes of a large diameter. Until chain-cables were intro- 
duced, all the ships which navigated the Indian seas had 
cables made of this substance. Sea-water is said to be 
rather beneficial than hurtful to it. Coir-cordage, when 
properly prepared, is pliable, smooth, strong, and elas- 
tic : it is very well suited for running-rigging, more espe- 
cially where lightness is deemed an advantage, such as 
top-gallant studding-sail sheets, &c. On account of its 
contractility, seamen consider it not well fitted for standing 
rigging. Dr Roxburgh, in his observations on the com- 
parative strength of English hemp and other vegetable 
fibres, states, that he found hemp-rope and coir-rope, when 
large, to be respectively as 108 to 87 in strength, and when 
