Nature and Art, April 1, 18G7.] 
THE COCOA-NUT PALM. 
Ill 
covers for about a month : the liquid, after being 
carefully strained, is replaced in the jar's, and a little 
red pepper, a small piece of the fruit of the gamboge 
tree, and a pod or seed-vessel of the horse-radish, 
which in the East is a tree ( Hypertanthera moringa), 
are added to each vessel of fluid. In about five weeks 
vinegar of most excellent quality is the result. 
From the sap, before fermentation, when boiled to a 
syrup Avith quick-lime, and roughly crystallized, the 
material known as Jaggery, or native sugar, is made. 
Great quantities of this are both exported and con- 
sumed where it is made for the manufacture of the 
commoner kinds of confectionery. So much for the 
sap of the tree. 
The fruit is consumed in an almost endless variety 
of ways, and not one single portion of it, or of the 
palm it grows on, is without a use. The young, 
green, undeveloped nut, as we have before stated, 
contains a rich store of cool and delicious drink which, 
when habitually partaken of by the fair sex, is said 
by the elderly dowagers of the East to render the 
complexion permanently clear, remove all wrinkles, 
and, in fact, like a Madame Kachael of the vegetable 
world, make beautiful for ever. However painful 
it may be to our feelings to cast doubt on this very 
agreeable little belief, experience in countries where 
cocoa-nuts in every stage of growth are easy of ob- 
tainment, compels us to state that beauty even in 
these favoured lands is not invariable ; that com- 
plexions are not always clear; and that wrinkles are 
no rarity. Perhaps some heedless fair ones neglect 
to avail themselves of the potent virtues of the nut 
Quien sabe ( who knows ) 1 W e tread on dangerous 
ground : so will proceed. 
This same liquid, when duly prepared, makes an 
indelible black dye ; the young nuts which contain 
it also hold within their soft rich crusts, veritable 
vegetable Blanc Mange, so delicious that one is 
tempted to habitually carry about a spoon in some 
convenient pocket, wherewith to extract the delicacy. 
A number of very excellent dishes are made from 
it. When a short time has passed a species of pulp 
of firmer consistence is formed, constituting quite a 
different kind of food, and allowing for the scope of 
more ingenuity on the part of the cooks; in the 
South Seas it is often worked up with the Taro root 
[Arum esculentum ) into balls as large as thirty- 
two-pound shot, and baked in the earth ovens of the 
natives. The kernel of the nut when ripe, and in 
some respects resembling the condition in which it 
is usually eaten in this country, is treated in a 
variety of ways for the preparation of food, and the 
manufacture of oil, in which it abounds. A per- 
fumed oil in high repute amongst the native beaux 
and belles of some of the Islands, together Avith a 
substantial and durable article of diet, is thus made. 
The kernels of a large number of nuts are scraped 
, and rasped fine, and pressed through the close fibres 
of a sort of bag formed by the natural cloth en- 
veloping the embryo nut clusters and young fronds. 
A sort of soft paste being thus obtained, certain 
highly perfumed grasses, roots, and chips are pro- 
cured and Avell stirred in ; the vessel containing the 
mixture is then placed in the sun, the heat of which 
soon causes a flow of oil. This on rising to the 
surface is carefully skimmed off with shells from 
the beach, and preserved for use. When no more 
oil is to be obtained, the remaining mass is thoroughly 
pounded, folded in green banana leaves, made into 
secure packages, and laid amongst the deep reck 
pools in the sea, where they are securely retained 
by placing heavy lumps of coral rock upon them. 
This prepared paste or “ Kora,” as it is called, re- 
tains its goodness for a very long time, and is a food 
extensively consumed, ’and to which the Islanders 
are very partial. 
There is another native inhabiting these cocoa-nut 
isles, who, although no cook, consumes his share, or 
perhaps rather more, of the tree treasures. This 
Avorthy is the “ On Ou,” or great robber crab ( Birgus 
latro), who, miner-like, excavates deep galleries in 
the coral sand beneath the roots of the palms or other 
trees in the vicinity of the cocoa-nut groves, sallying 
forth in true brigand-like manner to feast on the 
fruit. Strange tales haA r e been told of these ma- 
rauders climbing the tall stems of the cocoa trees, 
for the purpose of detaching and casting down the 
nuts. We are not prepared to say that certain 
varieties may not have been known to do so; our 
own experience, however, leads us to believe that 
such nuts as fall to the ground constitute the 
ordinary spoils appropriated by B. lalro. These 
his enormously powerful and heavy nippers enable 
him to husk, and rend from their tough coverings 
with surprising facility ; and it is only necessary to 
examine a cocoa-nut husk with tire nut enclosed, as 
they are brought to this country, to be convinced 
that our nut-eating friend must be a sort of crusta- 
cean Hercules to be able to drag it forth. And so 
he is, for the tenacious, wire-like network of cocoa- 
nut fibre in which the prize is enveloped is split 
and rent asunder as though Avith large iron pincers, 
and. the brown nut set free. The end on which the 
three well-knoAvn holes, or monkey's face , are situated 
is then attacked, and a succession of heavy raps 
rapidly delivered with the large claw. A breach is 
thus soon made into which the narrow nippers are 
inserted, and the SAveet, white, oleaginous kernel 
deftly scooped out. 
B. latro is not only a gourmand, but a utilitarian : 
so he cards up the masses of coir, the result of his 
rending operations, almost as fine as tow, and then 
transports them to the inmost recesses of his burrow, 
to form a sort of bed on which to recline, as Avell as 
a convenient covering and protection Avhen debarred 
from the pleasures of society during the progress of 
shell-shifting. The Islanders are fully aware of his 
provident habits, and often take advantage of the 
stores of coir thus collected, making use of them 
for the various purposes to which fibre of this kind 
is applied. Nature has wonderfully and wisely 
provided for these creatures, during periods hi which 
they remain comparatively torpid, stores or magazines 
of oil, which they carry beneath their tails. Those 
of some of the large crabs have been known to yield 
over a quart of excellent limpid oil. 
Nocturnal visits are from time to time paid to 
the sea> but we are Dot of opinion that, as some 
