THE COCOANUT. T did sound "passing strange" to one, born in New trees, to hear it remarked, with perfect complacency and assurance, that "there was no tree so beautiful as the cocoanut, when seen on the shore from an incoming vessel"; and I almost lost my breath in going, mentally, at one bound, from our beautiful and graceful elm to the gaunt, tall, branchless, boughless, uncompanionable-looking tree of Hawaii and the South Seas. At first the very thought of such disloyalty to the home of my birth filled me with indignation. But in less time than a few years I, too, came to believe in the cocoanut. We "live and learn"; and I lived to learn and to indorse the sentiment with all my heart; to coolly pass by elm and England's boast, the "Pride of India," brilliantly-colored maples, royal palm, and traveler's, and indeed every other tree, to rejoice at and lift my hat to the cocoanut! Yes. True, it does stand often quite alone in its own strength, like some one sentinel on an outer wall, a single tree, far away from all companionship, on some point of the shore, rising from the sand-up, up, forty, fifty, sixty feet, until its feathery, star like crown seems ambitious to touch the clouds. Yes, with its great height and its century of ageand more, perchance-pointing upward to the sky and outward to the horizon-pointing upward, waving to the sky, then bending and worshiping the sea! Yes, it loves the shore and the sea, watching for the vessels ever-a landmark for the sailor. And when so old and so weather-beaten, with its long, long service of patient watching for ships that will never come to those shores more-vessels that had been there again and again, in youth and middle age, now grown old and unfit for service-others wrecked and lost half a century ago! When it has lost its crown-its wealth of leaves and clusters of nuts-long years before, you can still see it standing there the brave, old veteran!—with its tapering stem pointing spire-like upward, and outward to the sea. Aloha, golden-hearted old cocoanut! And so I mean to tell you, if you will stay, how this cocoanut-tree came to grow upon me altogether, and why and how I know that it is "a thing of beauty" and "a joy forever" to a dweller in the tropics. Again, a perfect fringe of them may be seen, or a group, as of one family, or a grove, even. Look! that tall one at this minute is eagerly nodding and waving its last farewell to the vessel you can see, as a mere speck, against the horizon. Ah, she was here in her youth as well—strong, fresh and beautiful-glorying in hull, and mast, and sail, that could and would defy the world of waters, and come out victor through every storm! She will boast no more, alas! Her timbers are sea-worn and unworthy, her sails and spars are weak with long years of battling with winds and tempests. She will win port never again, but will go down in the next fierce and determined gale! "What sighs have been wafted after that ship! what prayers offered up at the deserted fire-side of home! How often has the mistress, the wife, and the mother, pored over the daily news, to catch some casual intelligence of this rover of the deep! How has expectation darkened into anxiety- anxiety into dread-and dread into despair! Alas! not one memento shall ever return for love to cherish. All that that shall ever be known is, that she sailed from her port, 'and was never heard of more.' "Eternal Father, strong to save, 9.99 Whose arm hath bound the restless wave, Its own appointed limit keep; O hear us when we cry to Thee "O Christ, whose voice the waters heard, And hushed their raging at Thy word, For those in peril on the sea." The cocoanuts, say they, too, were young when first they saw their friend, the ship-the big white birdskimming gaily before the breeze, in the gloriously beautiful morning of this rainbow-land. And that she, in her freshness and her joy made, with themselves, a part of the magnificent water view of coral reef and headland, of tree, and ship, and sea, and sun, and sky! A hundred years and more, perhaps, since some of them sprang into life. With perfect fruit and leaf, they have stood there on the shore, ever bending toward the sea they love so well, and seeming to beckon the ships on and into port. Now numbers of them, old and battered-looking-all comeliness and beauty gone, but still able to point, spire-like, to the sky, and outward to the rising sun! Aloha nui! thou perfect tree of the South Seas! In the times of the chiefs, he who cut one down must plant four. The cocoanut is very useful to the Hawaiians in their plaiting and weaving of mats, hats, fans, etc. Their work in this respect is often very fine, artistic and skillful, and can command a good price. And the pretty cups one sees! A chief would order a grass hut made by his dependents, and much weaving and other work would be exacted. When it was finished he would compel the poor maker to lie flat upon the top, and, going within, would throw his spear to the roof to prove that the work was weather-proof. Woe to the luckless builder if the spear did perforate the thatch! He was then a victim to loose and slipshod weaving and plaiting! That is the legend, but I never met with a native who had an ancestor killed in that way. Probably I did not ask the right family. Some few years ago a party was cast away on one of the smaller South Sea islands, and for months subsisted on cocoanuts alone. When found they were in good health. My liking is for the nut at that stage when it can be eaten with a spoon. How delicate and rich the nut is for cake, candy and puddings. And all agree who know aught of India curry that it is never a perfectly delicious curry lacking this most-to-be-desired ingredient. How life-giving and restorative, too, the milk is from a fresh nut those only can tell who live where they grow. Lying on the beach as the glorious moon of the tropics came up-for nowhere else does she present so heavenly a face- and looking landward through a grove of these magnificent trees, of many heights and sizes, with their mammoth leaves and clusters of nuts, like green feathery stars against the violet-tinted sky set with her gems of stars and planets; looking first at them, then at the sea at my feet, rippling and shining in the light, was "fairy-land" indeed! And now you know something of why I am in love with the cocoanut. "ALOHA NUI, THOU PERFECT TREE OF THE SOUTH SEAS!" |