covered with stout paper inside and out, are strong, light,
and secure the insect-pins remarkably well. The leaflets
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 leaf-stalks 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 fibres
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
Y.'l.
SAGO CLUB.
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
bleared out, leaving a skin not more than half an inch in
[hickness. 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
SAGO WASHING.
almost entirely of the sago 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 ot 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