ANIMAL SAGACITY. 
181 
From the nut of this tree a very useful oil is 
extracted, which is used by the Hindoos for domestic 
purposes, for the services of their temples, and for 
anointing their bodies. It is now becoming in Europe 
an article of considerable domestic consumption, being 
employed with great success in the manufacture of 
soap and candles, as it is a purer and better material 
than tallow. The husk of the nut is manufactured 
into cables and smaller cordage, and has the peculiar 
property of being preserved in salt water. 
The leaves of the cocoa-nut tree are employed for 
thatching houses, and the wood for sundry purposes. 
Upon the whole, this is the most useful production of 
the vegetable world in India, and it is frequently ex- 
posed to depredations from two animals as opposite 
in character as in size. The one is the elephant, 
which comes from the jungles and commits dread- 
ful havoc among the plantations. Entering a cocoa- 
nut tope, it fixes on a tree which appears within the 
compass of its mighty strength, and seizing it with 
its trunk as high as it can reach, sways it to and fro 
with the nicest calculation of its resistance. If the tree 
does not readily yield, the wily animal tries another 
and another, until it meets with one which it can 
master. When the tree is so loosened as to be about 
to fall, the elephant places its foot upon the root, and 
lowers it gently with so calculating a sagacity, that 
one would almost think it had studied the laws of 
mechanical force. 
The other formidable enemy of the cocoa-nut tree 
is a huge crab, or rather lobster, from twenty-four 
to thirty inches long, which abounds on the shores 
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