lower part as a man's leg. They are very light, consisting entirely of a firm pith
covered with a hard thin rind or bark. Entire houses are built of these; they form
admirable roofing-poles for thatch; split and well-supported, they do for
flooring; and when chosen of equal size, and pegged together side by side to fill
up the panels of framed wooden horses, they have a very neat appearance, and
make better walls and partitions than boards, as they do not shrink, require no
paint or varnish, and are not a quarter the expense. When carefully split and
shaved smooth they are formed into light boards with pegs of the bark itself, and
are the foundation of the leaf-covered boxes of Goram. All the insect-boxes I
used in the Moluccas were thus made at Amboyna, and when covered with stout
paper inside and out, are strong, light, and secure the insect-pins remarkably
well. The leaflet of the sago folded and tied side by side on the smaller midribs
form the "atap" or thatch in universal use, while the product of the trunk is the
staple food of some= hundred thousands of men.
When sago is to be made, a full-grown tree is selected just before it is going to
flower. It is cut down close to the ground, the leaves and leafstalks cleared away,
and a broad strip of the bark taken off the upper side of the trunk. This exposes
the pithy matter, which is of a rusty colour near the bottom of the tree, but higher
up pure white, about as hard as a dry apple, but with woody fibre running
through it about a quarter of an inch apart. This pith is cut or broken down into a
coarse powder by means of a tool constructed for the purpose—a club of hard
and heavy wood, having a piece of sharp quartz rock firmly imbedded into its
blunt end, and projecting about half an inch. By successive blows of this, narrow
strips of the pith are cut away, and fall down into the cylinder formed by the
bark. Proceeding steadily on, the whole trunk is cleared out, leaving a skin not
more than half an inch in thickness. This material is carried away (in baskets
made of the sheathing bases of the leaves) to the nearest water, where a washing-
machine is put up, which is composed almost entirely of the saga tree itself. The
large sheathing bases of the leaves form the troughs, and the fibrous covering
from the leaf-stalks of the young cocoa-nut the strainer. Water is poured on the
mass of pith, which is kneaded and pressed against the strainer till the starch is
all dissolved and has passed through, when the fibrous refuse is thrown away,
and a fresh basketful put in its place. The water charged with sago starch passes
on to a trough, with a depression in the centre, where the sediment is deposited,
the surplus water trickling off by a shallow outlet. When the trough is nearly full,
the mass of starch, which has a slight reddish tinge, is made into cylinders of
about thirty pounds' weight, and neatly covered with sago leaves, and in this
state is sold as raw sago.