COCOANUT TODDY. Cocoanut trees of vigorous growth send forth nine, ten, and even twelve clusters of buds every year. But those on which little care has been bestowed, and which are consequently feeble, produce only four or five of these tpathes, called in Tamil ' palaL' The Sanar,' or toddy-drawer, when accoutred, lotus first in importance among his appointments, the arivalpatty (lit. knife-box), imule from the sheath of the spathe, and bound round tight with two binders of rattan. A strongly plaited rope is permanently fastened to one side of the arivalpatty. The short arm of it has a much smaller loop ; viten flattened round the waist, the longer arm in ms.sed inside the Innen loop of the short artn. lorough the loop of the long arm, tho toddv Irawer passes the end of his waist-cloth, and ties t into a knot. Next in importance is the uropetty, nto which the toddy-drawer empties the toddy ollected in the pot or chatty up the tree. It is nade of palmyra fibre closely plaited, and, when noistened, is water-tight. two wooden collar havings, about two inches broad, encircle the nouth of the eropetty, one inside and one outside ; between them the plaited wicker-work s run up and made fast. To keep the eropetty ts bulged, bottle-like form, a piece of rattan Lbout half-any down is woven in, and encirclea he vessel like the hoop of a barrel. The eropetty tang,s suspended over the hoop of a barrel. it akes nearly a year's practice to make a man naster of the curious mode of climbing, after which the loftiest trees are ascended in a minute with surprising ease. After a hard morning's work, the left arm always aches more than the )ther limb, showin„r, that there is more strain On t than anywhere else. When an accident befalls ). toddy-drawer, it is usually occasioned by his [eft hand missing its hold on the tree and slipping wide, which brings him to the ground instantly, )ften with fracture or injury of that limb.
When the spathe is a month or a month and a half old, the toddy-drawer begins his labours by binding the shetith to prevent its expansion aft,er which he cuts about an inch off the end, then gently hammers the flowers which are thereby exposed. Finally, be binds up the end with a broad strip of fibre, and descends. This process he continues morning and evening for fifteen days, a thin slice being cut away on each occasioto. Durinc, this time,..also, by shaving away a little of the mider part of the sheath, he trains it to bend over. It is probable that the exact term of days during which the spathe undergoes this initiatory preparation vazies i71 different places, and depends upon surrounding circuinstances. Mr. Berthold Seeman, in lois Popular History of Palms, mentions five or six days as sufficient Near Madras, a toddy-drawer gave fifteen days as the usual time ; but the time when a spathe is ready to yield toddy will be easily known by the chatter ing of birds, the crowding of insects, the dropping of tbe juice, and other unmistakeable sign.:.
When ready, the end of the spathe is fixed into a kudave or small pot, and a small slip of leaf is pricked into the flowers to catch the oozin,g liquor, and to convey the drops, without wasting, clear into the vessel. When the spathe begins to yield toddy, he ceases to hammer it. It will give toddy for about a mouth, during which time, every morning and evening, ho mounts the tree, entpties the toddy into his eropetty, binds the spathe an inch lower down, smears the end of it with his palai mattai, and shaves a little away, then pricks in the slip of leaf, and ties tho kudave on again. The man who ascends the tree is generally a paid servant, receiving about 7 a month. Ilo will attend to thirty or forty trees. Forty trees yield about twelve measures (Madras) of juice, seven in the morning and five in the evening. During the heat of the day the spathe does not yield so freely as in the night. Twelve measures for forty trees is at the rate of a little more than one-fourth of a measure to each tree.
A first-rate tree in a good soil, and carefully tended, will produce one measure durino. the night, and three - fourths or one - half of' that uantity during the day ; but, taking one tree with another, a quarter of a measure is a fair average. Some tree,s, under favourable circum stances, continue yielding at this rate throughout the year, others only for six months. It is not prudent, however, to draw all you can from them, as they will be exhausted, and become barren. Every morning and evening, when the Sanar goes to draw the toddy, a servant or some one con nected with the owner or contractor for the trees, usually accompanies Um with a chatty, into which is emptied the toddy from the eropetty. When all the trees have been visited, and the toddy measured into the chatty or cullu-pani, it is carried away to the bazar rented by the con tractor from Government at a fixed price. In Madras there are about 58 first-class toddy shops, to each of which 330 cocoanut trees are allotted, the contractor paying daily Rs. 2.12.10 to Govern ment for each such shop ; also 63 second-class toddy shops, to each of which 247 cocoanut trees are allotted, each shop yielding daily Rs. 2.2'10 to Government ; and also 205 third-class shops. There is nothing very peculiar about the habit, custom, or dress of the Sanars to separate them from other Hindu castes, apart from their occupation. Around Madras the &mars are divided into two classes, the higher and the lower ; the latter are called Pully Sanar, and permit their widows to marry.—Dr. Cleghorn, in No. 23, Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, 1861.