142 NATtJRAL AND ECONOMICAL HISTORY 
Fahren. Hence it is in a fluid condition during the greater 
part of the voyage from India. 
The shells of coco-nuts are manufactured into beads for 
rosaries. They are also used as drinking-vessels, and for 
various other domestic purposes. Occasionally they are 
polished by the natives, v/llo cut figures in relief upon them. 
When thus ornamented, they are sometimes employed by 
the English as sugar-basins. In the neighbourhood of 
Monte Video, in South America, the ladies drink an infu- 
sion of an herb called matte (Paraguay tea) from highly 
ornamented coco-nut cups. The/ extract the tea from the' 
cup by sucking it through a long silver tube. The com- 
mon ladle used in great part of India and in the Brazils, 
is formed of a part of a nut, to which a long wooden handle 
is fixed. In America they have even given a name to 
the instrument, for ladles made of silver are called silver 
cocos. By the inhabitants of some of the Oriental Islands, 
they are employed as a measure for ascertaining the quan- 
tity of both dry and fluid substances. Their capacity is 
known by the number of cowines (Cyprea moneta) they will 
contain. Hence there are cocos of 500 or 1000 cowries, 
and so on. 
They are used as fuel by the goldsmiths; and, when 
converted into charcoal, they are mixed with limcj and em- 
ployed to colour the walls of houses. 
As an article of the Materia medica, the natives of India 
recommend a decoction of the roots of the coco tree, mixed 
with ginger, as an excellent febrifuge. The juice expressed 
from young branches, combined with oil, is said to be a use- 
ful application to haemorrhoids. In chronic inflammation of 
the bladder, and gonorrhoea, they recommend a mixture of 
the expressed juice of the flower of the coco-tree and sugar. 
The oil is said to be useful, if applied to ulcers or pustules 
on the head. Mixed with salt, and drank to the quantity 
