TODDY.
Palm wine, Toddy, . ENG. Tuwak, . . . MALAY. Sendi of date palm, HIND. Kalil' . . . . MALEAL. Tari of palmyra palm, „ Sura, Tari, Tadi, SANSK.
Nareli of cocoanut, „ Khullu, . . TAM, TEL.
Toddy is the name generally given by Europeans to the sweet, refreshing liquors which are pro cured in the tropics by wounding the spathes or stems of certain palms, on which the sap and juices exude from the trunks or from the fruit-stalks. In the West Indies it is obtained from the trunk of the Attalea eohune a native of the Isthmus of Panama. In South-iastern Asia the palms from which it is collected are the gomuti, cocoanut, palmyra, date, and the kittul or Caryota urens. The gorriuti palm, Arenga saccharifera, is fit to yield toddy when nine or ten years old, at the average rate of three quarts a day. On the first appearance of the fruit, one of the spadices is beaten with a short stick, on three successive days, with the view of determining the sap to the wounded part. The spadix is cut off a little way from its root or base, and the liquor which oozes • out is received in pots of earthenware, in bam boos, and other vessels. When newly drawn, the liquor is clear, and in taste resembling fresh must. 1,,w.„.
- n a very short time it becomes turbid, whitish, an somewhat acid, and quickly runs into the vario A.' states of fermentation, acquiring an intoxicati • quality. In Malacca, the gomiiti, termed kabo 1: comes into bearing after the seventh year. - oduces two kinds of Mayams or spadices —male a . female. The gomuti grows throughout' many of t i islands of the Eastern Archipelago, and is largely L. lizecl by the people.
To procure the toddy or ta ; of the palmyra tree, the Borassus flabelliformis, .• the season when the inflorescence begins to a ...ear, and before the spathes have had time to bu .- t the toddy-drawer cuts off all leaves except thre Ir four, and all or rnost of the spathes are effectuall , encompassed from end to end by thongs, to prevent the inflorescence from bursting forth.
When thus tied, for three successive mornings they are beaten or crushed between the wooden battens, with the object of keeping them from bursting, and to encourage the flow of sap. On the fourth morning, a thin slice is cut from the parts of the spathes. On the eighth morning, a clear sweet liquor begins to flow from the wounded parts, and the toddy-drawer then ascends in the evening with pots or toddy receivers, in which lie places the ends of the spathes, and leaves them until the morning, when they are found to contain a quantity of this liquor. The operation of attracting the juice is repeated every morning or evening until the whole spathe is sliced away. The trees are drained in this manner for several months of the year, seven or eight spathes yielding at the same time.
The toddy of the cocoanut tree (Cocos nucifera), called nira, is obtained from the flower spathes before the flowers have expanded, in a manner almost similar to what has been described of the palmyra palm. The spathe is tied with strips of
the young leaves to prevent its expansion. It is cut a little transversely from the top, and beaten either with the handle of the toddy knife or a piece of hard wood, a process which is repeated morning and evening for five or six days in succession. The under part of the spathe is then taken off, to allow of its being bent, in which position it is retained by being attached to a leaf-stalk below. An earthen pot or leaf basket is, a few days afterwards, attached to the end, and i,s every morning and evening emptied of the toddy which exudes into it, the quantity of which greatly varies. A little portion of the spathe is daily cut off.
Sendi toddy is procured from the date tree of Phcenix sylvestris, during the months *of November, December, January, and February, in which period each tree is reckoned to yield from 120 to 240 pints of juice ; but the mode of its extraction destroys both the fertility and the appearance of the tree. After removing the lower leaves and their sheaths, a notch is cut in the pith of the tree near the top, from which the toddy issues by a small channel, made of a bit of the palmyra leaf, into a pot suspended to receive it.
Palm wine is also extracted from the Caryota urens during the hot season. The quantities which are said to flow from it are immense, so rnuch as a hundred pints during the twenty-four hours.
The taste of toddy in its fresh state probably varies according to the state of the weather and season of the year, which will explain the many comparisons given of it, to Poubon water, mild champagne, cider, ginger beer, perry, etc. In all eastern countries the toddy of these several trees is used for the same purposes. It is drank, though rarely, when fresh from the tree, and is then a gentle aperient, particularly useful in delicate constitutions. It is boiled down into a coarse sugar called jagari or gur, which is afterwards refined. It is fermented in the course of a day into a mildly intoxicating liquor, still known as toddy, of which several pints are partaken before intoidcation comes on. It is also distilled into arrack, made into vinegar, and ,throughout all eastern countries it is employed is,...yeast, as it begins to ferment in a few hours after,it,is drawn. In the Prui;nsula of India the ropes employed by the toddy-drawers to help thent to cliinb tho tree, are made of cow or buffalo hide, but in other countries the pliant tendrils of plants are sometimes employed. The ropes are sufficiently large to surround the tree and the body of the climber, who, by leaning backwards and throwing his whole weight on the rope, is thus enabled to retain each position he attains, while by drawing up his feet and shifting the thong in his hand to higher points, he oradually raises hitnself to the top of the tree. °Accidents, however, are frequent and severe.