i8o C O O K’s VOYAGE. 
quids without leaking. The juice which trickles into the/e 
veflels, is collected by perfons who climb the trees for that 
purpofe, morning and evening, and is the common drink of 
every individual upon theiftand^ yet a much greater quantity 
is drawn off than is confumed in this ufe, and of the furplus 
they make both a fyrup and coarfe fugar. The liquor is 
called dua, or duac, and both the fyrup and fugar gula. The 
fyrup is prepared by boiling the liquor down in pots of earthen 
ware, till it is fufficiently infpiflated ; it is not unlike treacle 
in appearance, but is fomewhat thicker, and has a-much more 
agreeable tafte : tlft fugar is of a reddifh brown, perhaps the 
fame with the Jugata fugar upon the continent of India, and 
it was more agreeable to our palates than any cane fugar unre- 
fined, that we had ever tailed. We were at firlt afraid that 
the fyrup, of which fome of our people eat very great quanti- 
ties, would have brought on fluxes, but its aperient quality 
was fo very flight, that what effect it produced was rather falu- 
tary than hurtful. I have already obferved, that it is given 
with the hulks of rice to the hogs, and that they grow enor- 
moully fat without taking any other food : we were told alfo, 
that this fyrup is ufed to fatten their dogs and their fowls, and 
that the inhabitants themfelves have fubfllled upon this alone 
for feveral months, when other crops have failed, and animal 
food has been fcarce. The leaves of this tree are alfo put to 
various ufes, they thatch houfes, and make bafkets, cups, 
umbrellas, and tobacco-pipes. The fruit is leal! efteemed, 
and as the blolfoms are wounded for the tuac or toddy, there 
is not much of it : it is about as big as a large turnip, and 
cWvei ed like the cocoa-nut, with a fibrous coat, under which 
are three kernels, that mull be eaten before they are ripe, 
for afterwards they become fo hard that they cannot be chew- 
ed ; in their eatable ftate they tafte not unlike a green cocoa- 
nut, and, like them, probably they yield a nutriment that is 
watry and unfubftantial. 
The common method of drefiing food here is by boiling, 
and as fire-wood is very fcarce, and the inhabitants have no 
other fuel, they make ufe of a contrivance to fave it, that is 
not wholly unknown in Europe, but is feldom pradtifed ex- 
cept in camps. They dig a hollow under ground, in a hori- 
zontal direction, like a rabbit burrow, about two yards leng, 
and opening into a hole at each end, or e of which is large 
and the other fmall : by the large hole the fire is put in, and 
the fmall one ferves for a draught. The earth over this bur- 
row is perforated by circular holes, which communicate with 
the cavity below ; and in Jhefe holes are fet ear. hen pots, ge- 
nerally about three to each fire, which are large in the middle, 
and taper towards the bottom, fo that the fire aids upon amrge 
part of their furface. Each of thele pots generally contains 
about 
