Particular Account of the Cinnamon. 345 
to affirm that the cinnamon may be smelt far at sea off the 
island. This assertion is, in fact, a mere fiction, as even in 
passing through the woods I never could perceive any scent 
from the tree, except by pulling off some of the leaves or 
branches. The flower has even less scent than the leaves or a 
bit of twig. 
The cinnamon tree produces a species of fruit resembling an 
acorn, but not so large, which gets ripe about the latter end of 
autumn, and is gathered by the natives for the purpose of ex- 
tracting oil from it. The process they employ is to bruise the 
fruit, boil it, and skim off the oil : this they use for their hair 
and body on great occasions, and also for burning in their lamps. 
When mixed with cocoa-nut oil, it gives extremely good light. 
The kings of Candy use it for this purpose, and formerly com- 
manded their subjects to bring them a certain quantity as a 
yearly tribute. When any ambassadors are sent to these 
princes, they always burn this oil during the time of audience. 
When the tree gets old and decayed, and most of the 
branches fit for barking have been stript off, it is customary 
to set fire to it, and burn it down to the ground ; the roots 
are seen to shoot up again in long straight plants, much better 
formed than the preceding ones. From these are cut the highly- 
esteemed cinnamon walking-sticks, which when fresh are of a 
lively green, resembling holly, but after some time the bark 
becomes shrivelled, and they have very much the appearance 
of hazle-sticks. They still, however, retain the taste and 
smell of cinnamon. The bark of these shoots is extremely 
valuable, and the practice of cutting them when young for 
sticks has been found to prove so materially injurious, that it 
