To procure the toddy[132] the spathe is tied with stripes of the milk-white leaves of the very young branches, (which are much tougher and stronger than the old ones,) 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 small piece of ebony or iron wood; this process having been continued morning and evening (at dawn of day, and just as the sun declines below the horizon) for five or six successive days, the under part of the spathe is taken off, so as to permit of its being gradually bent, when the Chandos or toddy-drawers, for the purpose of keeping it in that position, attach it to some neighbouring branch. After a farther period of five days an earthen chatty or calabash is hung to the spathe, so as to receive the toddy that exudes, which is collected every morning and evening, and the spathe cut a little every day: the quantity collected varies much. The toddy should be drunk at sunrise, when it is a most delicious drink, having a slightly stimulating effect, and acting as a gentle aperient, a remedy admirably adapted for constipated habits, particularly in those of delicate constitutions. The Singalese prefer it after fermentation has taken place, and with it they often intoxicate themselves. Fermentation takes place in a few hours after the toddy has been collected, and is used by the bakers as yeast, the bread made with it being remarkably light. Toddy is seldom or never used by Europeans during the rainy season, being then regarded highly unwholesome. I have often found the toddy in Ceylon, and a refreshing bath before or just on the eve of sunrise, cooling, and it braces one up to go through the heat of the day in that sultry, debilitating climate. The spirit known in India by the name of _arrack_, or _rack_, is in several parts distilled from rice; but in Ceylon, where this spirit is named Pol, wakéré, it is distilled from toddy after it has undergone fermentation and become quite sour. One hundred gallons of toddy, it is stated, will produce, by distillation, twenty-five of arrack. Like all other spirits, when new, it is regarded injurious to the constitution, but when old, very wholesome. It is a favourite spirit among the drinkers of that far-famed English beverage, named punch. Toddy, besides the foregoing uses, makes excellent vinegar,[133] &c. The toddy-drawers are a separate caste in Ceylon, called Chandos: almost all the families of this class reside in the neighbourhood of the sea-coast, where the trees grow in the greatest luxuriance and abundance, the whole line of coast between Point de Galle and Colombo being thickly planted with them; and the topes or groves are let at a stipulated sum of rix-dollars by the month; and it is also not uncommon for one or two families or more to have a share in a single tree, affording them sufficient for their favourite and universal food, the currie.