the fruit in the water, and, with one of the cocoa nuts, they made a most delicious meal. The moon was shining over the dim and purple sea before they re-gained their tent.
For some days following, their labour was incessant—the banama tree seemed to be made too obviously for their home to be neglected; they cut away some of the boughs, and, stripping off some of the leaves, formed a kind of wall of branches and reeds, of which a large species grew near, and in great quantities. The spring they had found oozed away to a considerable distance, and at last was quite lost in a bed of greyish clay. Frank had often seen the natives of the villages, whither he had sometimes gone, fashioning clay into any form by
once more rests his hands on the stem, relieves his feet of the weight, and draws them up, as before, till the next notch receives the foot-strap, and so on till he reaches the top. He carries along with him an earthen pot slung round his neck, and a huge knife at his girdle. With this he cuts away the young sprouts, and draws off the toddy, which appears to be the sap intended by nature to form the fruit. When freshly taken from the tree, in the cool of the morning, it forms a delicious drink, not unlike whey in appearance, with a slightly acid taste, and a pleasant sweetness, as well as sharpness or briskness not very dissimilar to that of ginger-beer, only more racy and peculiar in its flavour."—Captain Hall's Fragments of Voyages and Travels, Second series, vol 2., pp. 217-219.
