It is interesting to see the natives ascend this lofty palm, to gather its fruit: they simply fasten a piece of bark round their feet, leaving between them a space of a few inches; they then clasp the tree, and ascend with great agility. In throwing down the nuts, a whirling motion is usually given to prevent their falling on the side, by which they may be burst. The natives of the island of Tahiti, in one of their traditions, ascribe the origin of the cocoa-nut to its having grown from the head of a man: they have similar traditions for the origin of the bread-fruit, yams, &c. &c. There are other species of the cocoas. The _C. butyracea_, a native of South America, the _C. guiniensis_, _aculeata_, _nypa_, &c. &c. all of which yield a fixed oil in use for various purposes. Lionel Wafer, (1685,) when at the Island Cocoas, southern Pacific Ocean, (latitude 5° 15′ north,) attributes injurious effects to an indiscriminate use of the water of the cocoa-nut by some of his crew, by which that beverage was found unfit for a _jollification_; for he says, “Nor did we spare the cocoa-nuts, eating what we would, and drinking the milk; carried several hundreds of them on board. Some or other of our men went ashore every day; and one day, among the rest, being minded to make themselves very merry, they went ashore, and cut down a great many cocoa-trees, from which they gathered the fruit, and drew about twenty gallons of milk. Then they all sat down, and drank healths to the king, queen, &c. They drank an excessive quantity; yet it did not end in drunkenness. But, however, that sort of liquor had so chilled and benumbed their nerves, that they could neither go nor stand; nor could they return on board the ship, without the help of those who had not been partakers in the frolic; nor did they recover it under four or five days’ time.” The continued use of the water contained in the young or green cocoa-nuts, is one of the causes attributed, (although I am inclined to consider it an erroneous opinion,) to produce the scrotal enlargements, &c. so often seen among natives of intertropical regions, more particularly those resident on the coast.