Homemade Coconut Vinegar

The cultural practitioner Lane Wilcken told me a story about the origin of the coconut tree: In the time before time, the brother of the demigod Lumauig speared an enemy and brought his head—considered the seat of the soul—back to the village, as both proof of victory and a way of making peace, by honoring the loss of life and making the enemy, in death, a spiritual member of the community. The head was buried, and from it grew the coconut tree, which in the Philippines is