there is another cocoanut grove on the farm, beside the one where alila gets the tuba. the fruit is allowed to ripen on these trees, and it is the boy's duty to gather it. there is a new growth of cocoanuts three times a year.
alila does not need to climb the trees for them unless he wishes. he usually fastens a sickle-shaped knife to the end of a long pole. in this way he can reach up to the tops of the tallest trees and cut off the cocoanuts; when thud! thud! down they fall to the ground, safe and sound. for the delicious pulp is not only shut up in the hard shell that we know, but this also is enclosed in a still larger and thicker covering.
how could the natives of tropic lands get along without this valuable tree? it has so many uses it would take a long time even to mention them all.
its roots are good to cure alila when he is seized by an attack of fever during the wet season. his mother believes that his life has been spared through the use of this medicine. alila's father made his canoe from the trunk of a cocoanut-tree; while much of the furniture in his employer's mansion has been carved from its beautiful wood. the boy's mother uses a comb made from the stalks of cocoanut leaves. the husks which enclose the fruit are made into coir, out of which are made ropes, brooms, brushes, and even bedding.
when alila was only five or six years old he learned to weave baskets and mats from the leaves, and he knows how to thatch a roof with them very neatly.
[53]
what is so delicious on a hot day as a drink of fresh cocoanut milk! it is never hurtful and quenches the thirst as well as the coldest water. the oil obtained from the nuts is used by alila's mother in her cooking.
but she also needs it for another purpose. she is always in fear of an earthquake, and feels safer to have a light burning in readiness all night long. she keeps in the cabin a small vessel half-full of water. cocoanut oil is poured on the water and a wick made of a certain kind of pith called tinsin hangs down in the middle of this odd lamp. the chinese taught the tagals the value of tinsin. there is scarcely to be found a native hut where it is not used for lamp wicks.
but you must be tired of hearing about cocoanuts and their uses, so we will return to alila and his strange adventures. one day not long ago his mother said to him:
"my child, i should like some fish for[54] dinner. will you go to the river and get some?"
alila has great success in fishing. he started off at once on his errand. he did not stop to get hook and line, as you would have done; he knew another way to fish, different from any we have in our country.
when he got to the river he walked along by its side till he found a place where the water ran very deep. then he took off his clothing, and lay quietly down on the bank. his eyes were wide open and watchful, though his body was so still. he soon saw some fish rise near the surface of the water. quick as a flash he jumped in and dived down, down under where the fish were darting. rising as suddenly as he had dived, he came to the surface with a fish in each hand.
he is such a nimble little fellow that he did this several times, and hardly ever failed. it was not long before he had a fine string of[55] fish to carry home. as he walked back, he stopped to gather some green bamboos of medium size, for he knew they would be needed in cooking the dinner.
while his mother was cleaning the fish, alila made a fire and cut the bamboos at every joint. they were changed at once into baking pans, each one large enough to slip a fish inside, together with a little water and some spices. the ends were stopped up, and the bamboos laid in the fire. as soon as they began to burn, it was a sign that the fish inside were cooked enough.
what a good dinner it was! you would have thought so if you could have tasted the rice steamed in the same way as the delicate fish and served on plantain leaves.
alila has still another way of fishing which is not as hard work as diving, though, after all, it is not much fun. he carries a bamboo basket in which he has put a mixture containing[56] a curious kind of poison. he sets it floating on the water. when the fish come near it the poison makes them stupid, and they rise and float motionless on the surface, as though they were dead. then it is an easy matter for alila to get them.
