ABSTRACT
Just a few years before Dr. Brown's time, Dr. Thomas Beale took a lively interest in the manufacture of this moki, describing a "toddy-cutter" climbing a coconut palm to cut off "the end of the fructifying bud that projects from the head of the tree" -a destructive process, because this was the bud that would have produced the flowers and nuts. A bamboo container was set beneath the wound, and by dawn, when the cutter returned, it was full. "It is then sold to any one who chooses to purchase; and it is much used by the inhabitants themselves, who obtain from it the ardent spirit, called by them aquadente, which they procure by distillation, after the juice has been fermented." This aguardiente or moki was the same "aniseed" that Dr. James Brown tippled on board the Timorese prau, for-like the pastis of France, the raki of the Middle East, and the ouzo of Greece-it was flavored with anise.
