TODDY-DRA WING, 
67 
first flow of the sap has taken place, the toddy-drawer 
again trims the wounded spathe, and inserts its extremity 
in an earthen chatty to collect the juice. Morning and 
evening these vessels are emptied, and for four or five 
months the palmyra will contiaue to pour forth its sap at 
the rate of three quarts a day. But once in every three 
yeara the operation is omitted, and the fruit is allowed to 
form, witliout which the natives assert that the tree would 
pine and die. The hard and durable wood of the palmyra, 
which, consisting like the other palms of straight horny 
fibres, can easily be split into lengths, is said to resist the 
attacks of the termites, and is used universally in Ceylon 
and India for roofing and similar purposes. The leaves, 
finally, are employed for roofe, fences, mats, baskets, fans, 
and paper. 
The Talpot or Talipot of the Singalese rises to tha 
height of one hundred feet, and expands into a crown of 
enormous fan-like leaves, each of whicli when laid upon 
the ground will form a semicircle of sixteen feet in 
diameter, and cover an area of nearly two hundred super- 
ficial feet. These gigantic foliaceous expansions are 
employed by the Singalese for many purposes. They 
form excellent fans, umbrellas, or portable tents, one leaf 
being sufiicient to shelter seven or eight persona ; but 
their most interesting use is for the manufacture of a 
kind of paper, so durable as to resist for many ages the 
ravages of time. The leaves are taken, whilst still tender, 
cut into strips, boiled in spring water, dried, and finally 
smoothed and |x>Iished, so as to enable them to be written 
on with a style, the furrow made by the pressure of the 
sharp point being rendered nsible by the application 
of charcoal ground with a fragrant oil. The leaves of the 
palmyra similarly prepared are used for ordinary purposes ; 
but valuable documents are written to-day, as they have 
been for ages past, on strips of the talipot. 
The currents of the sea sometimes drift to the shores of 
the Maldives, and even to the south and west coasts of 
