BOTANY OF THE LACCADIVES. 
G7 
tree for twelve or thirteen months, which is the time required for perfect 
ripenmg, the hnsk becomes hard and woody and the con* difficult to separate 
from the woody particles, requh-ing longer soaldng in its preparation, which 
darkens its colour and spoils it for the market ; hehig harder and coarser, too, 
it becomes, though not weaker than the best cob ought to he, much more diffi¬ 
cult to twist. If, on the other hand, the nuts are gathered too soon, the coir 
obtained, though excellent in colour and easy to manipulate, is too weak for 
yam, though quite good for minor purposes, such as a stuffing material for 
mattresses. 
The proper age of nuts for coir-making is ten months ; at the end of the 
tenth month they are cut and husked, the husks being thrown into soaking-pits, 
where they are left for a year. These soaking-pits are simply holes in the sand 
on the lagoon-shore of the various islands, in which the husks are biuied and 
covered over by heaps of coral-blocks to protect them from the ripple of the 
waves. After twelve months’ soaking the husks are taken from the pits and the 
coh is separated from the refuse of the husk by heating. If taken out earlier, it 
is very difficult to rid the coir of impurities and woody particles; if left longer, 
the fibre is found to be weakened. In Ameni, where, as has been said, the 
island occupies the whole lagoon-space, and there is, therefore, no protected 
seashore suitable for coir-soaking, the husks have to be bmied in pits dug 
tln'ough the coral-crast within the body of the island. The cob is here, there¬ 
fore, soaked in fresh, instead of salt water, one result of which is that the Ameni 
cob is weaker than that produced in the other islands ; this is, no doubt, the 
result of the action of some of the products of decomposition in the water of 
these tanks. A further effect of this method of soaking is a discoloiu-ation of the 
fibre, for the water in the tanks never being changed becomes foul and dark- 
colom’ed by the decaying vegetable matter, and imparts this tinge to the cob. 
The two effects taken together, or perhaps rather the second, used by the buyer 
as an index of the first, renders Ameni coir a less marketable product than 
the cob of the other islands and reduces it to the level of most of the cob 
manufactured on the Malabar Coast itself, which is practically all made in this 
way, protected seashores on which to bm-y the husks being exceedingly rare 
except within the lagoons of coral islands. 
In separating the cob after the beating by sticks to break up the adhesion and 
remove impmities, the coir is hand-rubbed, chiefly by the women, to remove the 
woody tissue between the fibres. It is then rolled into loose pads as thick as 
one’s finger by the palms of the hands before being twisted mto yam, of which 
two strands are made at once.* 
* J. Shortt, F.L.S. ; Monograph of the Coco-nnt-palm, p. 16, Madras, 1888. 
367 
