the sweet juice, which he pours into the shell of the gourd, suspended from his waist, and conveys it to the ground by means of a line. The gourd is emptied by a person ready to receive it, and the line is drawn up by the man on the

tree.

Juice is seldom drawn from a coco-nut tope above six or seven months at a time, as this operation is supposed to exhaust the trees. During the intervening period, nuts are produced.

Toddy is the name given by the English to the sweet juices which are extracted from the different species of the palm tribe, including that of the coco-nut tree. It is perhaps a corruption of tari or taree, the Mussulman name of the juice of the Palmyra palm, of which tar or tal is the Sanscrit name.* Ra, which literally means juice, is the Singhalese name of the fluid extracted from the flower of a coco-nut tree, Sometimes it is called Mee-ra (honey or sweet juice); seldom, however, except when prepared for making jagery. Among the inhabitants of the maritime provinces of Ceylon, it is frequently denominated suri, which is said to be a Sanscrit word. With the above explanation, the words toddy, ra, meeand suri, may be used synonymously. Fresh drawn juice is sweet, and has a peculiar flavour, in consequence of some extractive matter it contains; and, in general, it operates as a laxative. When it is intended to distil arrack from suri, the toddy-drawers seldom change or clean the pots into which it is received; hence the juice soon ferments, and emits an acid. smell. In a half fermented state, suri is much relished by some Europeans. When it has become, by fermentation, highly intoxicating, the European soldiers, and the dissipated portion of the natives, drink it freely. To render this beverage acrid, the soldiers occasionally add green chillies (Capsicum frutescens) to it.

τα,

Is it not very probable, that the strong drink mentioned in Scripture was mee-ra, drawn from the flower of some of the palm tribe (palm-wine?) In several of the Oriental languages, there appears to be an intimate connexion between the words which designate honey, sugar, sweetness, and the juice of the palm family of plants. Mee, in the Singhalese language, means honey, sweet; and the toddy, or juice extracted from palm trees, is called mee-ra. Juice drawn from the flower of

* BUCHANAN'S Journey through Mysore, &c.

the Sago-palm, is, by the Malays, denominated Aer (water) saguer. As the word saguer, appears to be only a slight alteration from the Sanscrit adjective, implying sweet, aer saguer will therefore literally mean sweet water, or the sweetest water. In the Javanese language, the juice of the Gomutipalm is called lagen, which means the sweet material by distinction. We learn from SHAW, that the Hebrew word, rendered honey in Scripture, is, by some commentators, supposed to denominate the sweet juice procured from palm trees, as well as the honey of bees. He tells us that, in Barbary, the sweet juice extracted from date-palms, is called dipse; and that dibse or dipse, which is a Hebrew word, is generally translated honey, in the Old Testament.† Dr MOSELY, in his Treatise upon Sugar, &c. says, that the strong drink of the Scripture was called shecar, a word which likewise means intoxication. This word, shecar, does not differ much in enunciation from the Sanscrit adjective, implying sweet; and it very closely resembles the Malay name of the intoxicating toddy of the Sago-palm (Aer saguer). Dr MOSELY concludes his disquisition on the strong drink of the Old Testament, by saying, "What sottish liquor shecar was, no person knows. It was probably made from grain, perhaps from honey.”‡

The suri pots are sometimes visited, and the contents carried off during night. To detect the thief, the leaves of a species of datura are occasionally put into some of the pots. By means of the highly intoxicating effect of this compound, the marauder is often discovered.

Arrack may be distilled from suri the same day it is drawn; but sometimes this operation is delayed for a few days, without diminishing the quantity, or injuring the quality of the spirit. The process of distillation is carried on, in the maritime provinces, in copper stills; but, in the Kandyan Provinces, earthen-ware vessels are chiefly employed. Suri yields, by distillation, about one-eighth part of arrack, of the same strength as good brandy. Arrack, when well prepared, is clear and transparent: generally, however, it is slightly strawcoloured. It has a peculiar flavour, no doubt depending upon an essential oil which rises from the suri during distillation.

• CRAWFURD.

+ SHAW's Observations relating to Barbary and the Levant, voi. ii, p. 144,

note.

Medical Tracts, by Dr MOSELY, 2d edit. p. 138.

Arrack is issued to the soldiers in India and Ceylon, as part of the established ration. The seamen belonging to the Royal Navy in the Indian Seas are furnished with this spirit in place of rum.

Ceylon exports annually, and, for the most part, to the Presidences of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, from 5000 to 6000 leaguers of arrack, each containing 150 gallons. Including freight, duties upon exportation and importation, this spirit is sold at Madras at about 1s. 3d. per gallon. The prime cost of arrack in Ceylon, varies from 8d. to 10d. per gallon. It is stated by Mr BARTOLACCI, that arrack distilled at Batavia, is said to be sold in India from 10 to 15 per cent. cheaper than that brought from Colombo.* Ten per cent. duty is levied upon arrack exported from Ceylon. In England, this spirit has brought as high a price as from five to six shillings per gallon.

Batavian arrack is made from a mixture of molasses, palmwine, and rice, in the following proportions:

100 parts of these materials yield 23 of distilled proof arrack.

The rice is first boiled; and, after cooling, a quantity of yest is added to it, and is pressed into baskets. In this condition, it is placed over a tub or tubs, for eight days; during which time, a liquor flows abundantly from the mixture. At the end of that time, the liquor which has subsided, is taken out, and mixed with the molasses and palm-wine, which has been previously combined. The mixture remains in a small vessel for one day only, when it is removed into large fermenting vats, in which it remains for seven. The liquor is finally removed into the still; and, according to the number of distillations it undergoes, becomes arrack of the first, second, or third quality in commerce. The above account of the preparation of arrack, is extracted from Mr CRAWFURD'S work on the Indian Archipelago. Mr MARSDEN† informs us, that the "Palm-wine" used in this kind of arrack, is obtained from the coco-nut tree, and that arrack of the first quality may be purchased for about sixty Spanish dollars; second for

* BARTOLACCI on the Revenue and Commerce of Ceylon. + History of Sumatra.

per

fifty; and the third for thirty; each leaguer of 160 gallons. At this rate, the best arrack may be procured for 20d. gallon. It is at present manufactured chiefly for domestic consumption.

The phrase "Pariah-arrack" is often used to designate a spirit distilled in the Peninsula of India. Arrack, there prepared, is said to be often rendered unwholesome, by an admixture of ganja (Cannabis sativa), and a species of datura, with the intention of increasing its intoxicating quality. It is not clear, whether the term Pariah-arrack be colloquially employed to designate an inferior spirit, or an adulterated compound.

There is a spirit prepared in the neighbourhood of Madras, called puttay or putta arrack, literally bark arrack. Puttay, in the Tamool language, signifies the bark of a tree. Dr AINSLIE tells us, that the barks chiefly used in making arrack, are those of the Mimosa ferruginea, and the Mimosa leucophlea of Roxburgh.*

Suri is the yest commonly used by bakers in Ceylon. By allowing it to pass into the acetous fermentation, an excellent vinegar is obtained. A great variety of vegetable substances are pickled with vinegar of this kind.

When it is intended to extract jagery from suri, great care is taken to prevent it from fermenting. The earthen-ware pot, into which it falls, is emptied twice or thrice in twentyfour hours. After this operation, the pot is always well cleaned, then dried, and a small quantity of chunam (lime) is thrown into it, before being replaced. Sometimes a portion of the bark of a tree, whose name I do not recollect, is introduced into the receiving vessel, instead of chunam. The lime, perhaps, contributes to check the progress of fermentation. Almost immediately after the mee-ra is drawn from the tree, it is filtered through a portion of the reticulated substance found at the base of the leaf.

The juice is then slowly boiled in an earthen-ware vessel, until it becomes light coloured, and acquires a considerable degree of consistency. While still warm, and semi-fluid, it is poured into sections of coco-nut shells, where it soon becomes solid. Twenty-four ounces of jagery may be procured from a gallon of mee-ra. I state the quantity of jagery which mee ra yields, on the authority of Mr BERTOLACCI, who paid much

* Materia Medica of Hindoostan.

attention to this subject. It would appear that mee-ra is richer in saccharine matter than juice expressed from the sugar-cane in the West Indies. Dr MOSELY, in his History of Sugar, says, "We consider a pound of sugar from a gallon of canejuice as good yielding." According to Mr CRAWFURD, canejuice in Java, yields, on an average, 25 per cent. of sugar. Jagery contains both the crystallizable portion of the juice, and a quantity of molasses, or liquid sugar; but, by a subsequent operation, they can be, in a great measure, separated. This coarse sugar is generally made into little loaves, having the shape of a hemispherical vase, from the form of the vessel in which it cools. It has a deep chocolate colour; and, when broken, presents many clear shining particles of sugar. In the Malay language, jagery is denominated goola or goora itan (black sugar or black sweet.)

The ordinary price of jagery is about 2d. per pound. It is the only sugar used by the native inhabitants, and no other is prepared in Ceylon. They enjoy the juice of the cane, by masticating the green shoots, but in no other way, although they have a name for sugar extracted in other countries from this plant, which is sinee or chinee. The common soldiers ordinarily use jagery; and many Europeans of the upper ranks prefer it to a more refined species of sugar for sweetening coffee. Sugar-candy, which is chiefly imported from China, is the saccharine substance, commonly used by the higher classes of Europeans in India. In some parts of the interior of Ceylon, particularly in the vicinity of Adam's Peak, great numbers of the inhabitants support themselves by extracting a sweet juice from the nepery tree (Caryota urens), and manufacturing it into jagery. This tree grows spontaneously in the woods. The people thus employed, subsist chiefly upon coarse sugar. They occasionally procure a little rice and salt by barter, but they do not raise grain by cultivating

the soil.

There is some foundation for supposing, that the sugar of the ancients, which seems to have been imported from India, was the produce of the palm family of plants, and not that of the sugar-cane. SALMASIUS, the commentator of PLINY, is decidedly of opinion, that the sugar of the moderns is the produce of a different plant from that which produced the sugar of the Greeks and Romans. All the authors on this subject, with whose writings I am acquainted, describe the sugar of the ancients as being of a very coarse quality, and