DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3461#0109
THE VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF INDIA. 09
« he wants a spout lie hollows the trunk, split in two.
-" also supplies him with-spoons, ladles, and cups,
pans and drinking' vessels, hookah bowls, lamps, and
yater-buckets; the refuse of the kernel, after the oil
is expressed, serves for food for cows and pigs; the
milk from the kernel is used in his food. In short, if
a man has a few cocoa-nut trees in his garden, he will
never starve.
Arrack, a strong' spirit, resembling whiskey, is made
from toddy, the juice of the flower; and brooms are
made from the ribs of the leaflets.
There are many curious customs, traditions, and
superstitions, among the Hindoos respecting trees. In
planting the mango groves, it is a rule that the trees
stall be as far from each other as will prevent their
hranch.es from ever meeting. " Plant trees, but let
them not touch." Yet the marriage of trees is a very
common custom. Neither the man who plants a grove
nor his wife can taste of the fruit of a mango tree,
until he has married one of the trees to some other
tree, commonly the tamarind, that grows near it in the
same £>-rove. A great deal of pomp and ceremony
attends these vegetable unions; and, of course, occa-
sion is taken by the Brahminical priests to make the
ceremony one of profit to themselves. The larger the
number of Brahmins fed at the marriage, the greater
the glory of the proprietor of the grove. Colonel
Sleeman relates that, on his visiting the grove of an old
man, he asked how many he had feasted; and the
man answered, with a sigh, only one hundred and
fifty. " He showed me the mango tree which had
acted the part of bridegroom on one occasion, but the
bride had disappeared from his side. ' And where, is
the bride, the tamarind?' 'The only tamarind I had
m the grove died,' said the old man, 'before we could
bring about the wedding; and I was obliged to get a
jasmine for a wife for my mango. I planted it here,
« he wants a spout lie hollows the trunk, split in two.
-" also supplies him with-spoons, ladles, and cups,
pans and drinking' vessels, hookah bowls, lamps, and
yater-buckets; the refuse of the kernel, after the oil
is expressed, serves for food for cows and pigs; the
milk from the kernel is used in his food. In short, if
a man has a few cocoa-nut trees in his garden, he will
never starve.
Arrack, a strong' spirit, resembling whiskey, is made
from toddy, the juice of the flower; and brooms are
made from the ribs of the leaflets.
There are many curious customs, traditions, and
superstitions, among the Hindoos respecting trees. In
planting the mango groves, it is a rule that the trees
stall be as far from each other as will prevent their
hranch.es from ever meeting. " Plant trees, but let
them not touch." Yet the marriage of trees is a very
common custom. Neither the man who plants a grove
nor his wife can taste of the fruit of a mango tree,
until he has married one of the trees to some other
tree, commonly the tamarind, that grows near it in the
same £>-rove. A great deal of pomp and ceremony
attends these vegetable unions; and, of course, occa-
sion is taken by the Brahminical priests to make the
ceremony one of profit to themselves. The larger the
number of Brahmins fed at the marriage, the greater
the glory of the proprietor of the grove. Colonel
Sleeman relates that, on his visiting the grove of an old
man, he asked how many he had feasted; and the
man answered, with a sigh, only one hundred and
fifty. " He showed me the mango tree which had
acted the part of bridegroom on one occasion, but the
bride had disappeared from his side. ' And where, is
the bride, the tamarind?' 'The only tamarind I had
m the grove died,' said the old man, 'before we could
bring about the wedding; and I was obliged to get a
jasmine for a wife for my mango. I planted it here,