THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
319 
dling sized bowl, is reduced to the size of a twelve or 
eighteen pound cannon ball. On the smaller end of the nut 
being opened, we find about a pint of a very cool, refreshing, 
milky liquor, which forms a delicious drink. To the in- 
side of the shell adheres a coat of about half an inch thick, 
of a very white substance, in taste resembling a blanched 
almond. It is frequently eaten in its natural state, but 
more frequently in curries, muiicatauny, and peppermint 
water. It is first scraped off the inside of the shell with an 
instrument I have already described, resembling the rowel 
of a spur ; and then being mixed with water forms a sub- 
stance like milk. 
The oil extracted from the cocoa-nut is highly esteemed 
among the natives, and indeed is applicable to every useful 
purpose. It is prepared from the oldest of the nuts, which 
are first split and left in the sun to dry without any of 
their inside coating being removed : and when sufficiently 
dried, they are put into mills prepared for the purpose, and 
the oil is expressed from them. 
It is not, however, the nut alone that affords food and 
luxuries to man. From the top of the tree where the 
leaves shoot up, a liquor called toddy is procured by inci- 
sion. A slit is made in this part of the tree with a knife 
overnight, and a chatty or earthen-pot suspended from the 
branches so as to receive the juice, which immediately 
begins to distill, and continues to do so till next morning, 
when the pot is removed. This liquor, when drunk before the 
