Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/290

274 THE BALEVA.

popular Hindu holiday is the Baleva, or Náliari Punema, what the Europeans are pleased to call the Cocoa-nut Day. On this full-moon day (in August) the violence of the monsoon is supposed to have come to an end, and Father Neptune is supposed to be ready, on the customary propitiations, to allow ships to have a safe voyage. In writing of the Cocoa-nut holiday, it would not perhaps be amiss to describe the scope and significance of this peculiarly Aryan fruit in shell. What of all other nuts it most resembles in form is the human caput. It is indispensable on every religious occasion. Its water is considered holy nectar. The hairy surface of its coating goes to make miniature coir purses, bags, &c. The coating, or husk, itself makes excellent hukás, or hubble-bubbles. For this purpose the kernel is