The process of obtaining it from the spathes is as follows :—When the spathes, for instance, of the fruit-bearing palmyra trees appear, the toddy drawer, climbing to the top of the tree, binds the spathes tightly with thongs to prevent their further expansion, and thoroughly bruises the embryo flowers within to facilitate the exit of the juice. For several succeeding mornings, this operation of crushing is repeated, and each day a thin slice is taken off the end of the racemes, to facilitate the exit of the sap and prevent it bursting the spathe. About the morning of the eighth day, the sap begins to exude, when the toddy-drawer again trims this truncated spathe, and inserts its ex tremity into an earthen pot to collect the juice. These vessels are emptied morning and evening, and the palmyra will continue for four or five months to pour forth its sap at the rate of three or four quarts a day ; but once in every three years the operation is omitted, and the fruit is permitted to form, without which the natives assert that the tree would pine and die.
With the Arenga saccharifera, one of the spathes or shoots of fructification is beaten for three successive days with a small stick, with a view of determining the sap to the wounded part. The
shoot is then cut off, and the liquor which pours out is received in pots of earthenware, in bam boos, or other vessels. This palm is fit to yield toddy at seven or eight years old, and continues to yield it for two years at the average rate of three quarts a day. When newly dawn, the liquor is clear, and in taste resembles fresh must. In an hour or two it becomes turbid, whitish, and somewhat acrid, and quickly runs into the vinous fermentation, acquiring an intoxicating quality, and much of it is drunk in that state. A still larger quantity is immediately applied to the pur pose of yielding sugar. With this view the liquor is boiled to a syrup, and cooled in small vessels, the form of which it takes ; and in this shape it is sold in the markets. The sugar is of a dark colour and greasy consistence, with a peculiar flavour. It is the only sugar used by the native population of Java. The wine of the palm is also used in the preparation of arrack.— Walton's State, p. 116.