. COCOA-NUT TREE. 57 
is often as sweet and as rich as that grown in the 
most fertile parts of the valley. 
On first arriving in the islands, we used the 
cocoa-nut milk freely, but subsequently pre¬ 
ferred plain water as a beverage ; not that the 
milk became less agreeable, but because we sup¬ 
posed, perhaps erroneously, the free use of it 
predisposed to certain dropsical complaints pre¬ 
valent among the people. 
The cocoa-nut trees are remarkably high, some¬ 
times sixty or seventy feet, with only a tuft of 
leaves, and a number of bunches of fruit, on 
the top; yet the natives gather the fruit with 
comparative ease. A little boy strips off a piece 
of bark from a purau , branch, and fastens it 
round his feet, leaving a space of four or five 
inches between them, and then, clasping the tree, 
he vaults up its trunk with greater agility and ease 
than a European could ascend a ladder to an 
equal elevation. When they gather a bunch at 
a time, they lower them down by a rope; but 
when they pluck the fruit singly, they cast them 
on the ground. In throwing down the nuts, they 
give them a whirling motion, that they may fall on 
the point, and not on the side, whereby they would 
be likely to burst. 
Cocoa-nuts were formerly a considerable article 
of food among the common people, and were 
used with profusion on every feast of the chiefs; 
but for some years past they have been pre¬ 
served, and allowed to ripen on the tree, for 
the purpose of preparing oil, which has recently 
become an article of exportation, although the 
value is so small as to afford but little encourage¬ 
ment to its extended manufacture 
