154 
DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. X.—B. S. 
assume that they have migrated with the trade-wind 
rather than against it; or in other words, that Malayan 
Asia was peopled from Polynesia rather than Polynesia 
from Malayan Asia ? Toddy may be extracted from 
other Palms besides the Cocoa-nut, and from time im¬ 
memorial has been obtained from several indigenous 
Asiatic species ( Caryota , Arenga , etc.). Had the 
Polynesians therefore once known the process, they 
would probably never have forgotten so easy a way of 
obtaining sugar, vinegar, yeast, and a pleasant drink, 
the strength of which may he regulated by time to 
any man’s taste. So either the Polynesians could 
never have come from Eastern Asia, or else, after 
spreading over the South Sea, ages must have elapsed 
before the Cocoa-nut made its appearance in those 
waters, so that the process of toddy-making (there 
being no other suitable Polynesian Palms to operate 
upon) had been entirely forgotten, and even disap¬ 
peared from native traditions. Under such circum¬ 
stances, it behoves us to suspend our final judgment 
whether Polynesia be or be not the native country of 
the Cocoa-nut. 
As already stated, Western Africa has in our times 
only become familiar with the Cocos nucifera , and I 
have not been able to learn anything regarding its 
history on the eastern coast of that continent, except 
that in Madagascar, in common with many other 
things supposed to have been imported by Malay 
pirates, it bears a Malayan name. 
But how about Asia, where such forests of these 
Palms now gird the coast, and where they seem to 
