LANDFALL AND ISLAND SURVIVAL 
39 
meat. It is excellent food and a welcome variation from coco- 
nut meat. 
If a tree can be felled (not a recommended procedure, 
obviously, where trees are sparse), a large amount of edible 
celery-like material known as the heart of the coconut, or “cab- 
bage,” may be obtained from the center of the trunk at its junc- 
ture with the sprouting leaves. 
The nut is encased in a husk consisting of a smooth exterior 
and a matting of tough fibers. If you have a heavy knife or an 
axe, you need not remove the husk of the green coconut in order 
to get at the liquid. You can whittle off the husk at the free 
end (not the stem end) to a crude point and then cut off the 
end and the top of the nut inside, thus obtaining the liquid. If, 
however, you do not have a machete , which incidentally is the 
most valuable single thing a man can have in the tropics , you 
can follow this procedure: drive a stake, 3 or 4 feet long, into 
the ground so that it slants away from you at a slight angle. 
The top of the stake should be given a crude edge so that it 
will pierce the longitudinal fibers of the husk. Stand about a 
foot away from the stake, judging the point of entry so that 
the stake will clear the nut within the husk. Then push down 
with your hands giving the coconut a twisting motion to pry off 
a small portion of the husk. By repeating this process, you 
can entirely remove the husk from the nut. You can husk 
green or mature nuts in the same manner. 
Once the nut has been removed from the husk, your problem 
is to break through the hard shell of the nut. To open a young 
nut, hold it in one hand so that the eyes, which are at the stem 
end, are uppermost. Strike the nut sharply with a stone, or the 
point of a mature nut, just below each of the eyes. This will 
