238 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 
Some of chose who are addicted to it lose their intellectual faculties, are seized with 
trembling, or become stupid, absent-minded, or even insane. 
SuGAr.—In making sugar the fresh tuba is poured into kettles, beneath which a fire 
is kept burning, dried fronds, husks, and shells of coconuts being used for fuel, as 
well as mangrove and other hard woods. The sap soon turns brown and becomes 
thicker and thicker, until it assumes a semiviscid consistency, forming what is in the 
East Indies known as ‘‘jaggery’’—a kind of coarse, moist, brown sugar. If the jag- 
gery is allowed to drain in baskets the more fluid part will drain into pans placed to 
receive it, in the form of sirup or molasses. The remaining sugar is dried and the 
lumps broken up. In this form, combined with grated coconut meat, it can be made 
into sweetmeats, Coconut sugar is not made so extensively in Guam at the present 
time as formerly, before copra was in such great demand; but there are natives who 
still make it rather than buy imported sugar from the stores, and many families use 
the sirup (‘falmibar de tuba dulce’’) in their daily economy. 
LEAVES. 
The roofs in the majority of houses in Guam (Pl. xx) are thatched with coconut 
leaves (higae). These are split down the midrib, the two halves placed together 
end for end, and the leaflets braided diagonally. Long mats are woven (pupung) to 
cover the ridge of the roof, and secured in place by wooden pins passing through 
them below the ridgepole and projecting on each side. The higae are thoroughly 
dried before being lashed to the roof timbers. The pupung are put on green. 
Coconut thatch is not so durable as that of the nipa palm; a roof of coconut leaves 
lasting but four years, while one of nipa will last from ten to twelve. Neti thatch 
lasts even longer.’ In Samoa the sides of the houses are inclosed by coarse Venetian 
blinds made of coconut-leaf mats, which may be triced up or lowered at will. In 
Guam the walls of the houses are stationary and are sometimes composed of woven 
reeds (saguale) of Trichoon roxburghii (Pl. XX), which are also used for ceilings and 
partitions. Coconut leaves are not sufficiently durable for this purpose. Baskets 
made of them are only serviceable when fresh, becoming dry and brittle in a few 
days. The whole leaves are used to keep the thatch from blowing in windy weather, 
by tying the tips together and allowing the heavy petioles to hang suspended over 
the ridge. In Samoa, though the houses of the natives are thatehed with wild sugar 
cane, coconut leaves are always used for the side mats. 
The ribs of the leaflets are slender, strong, and somewhat elastic. They are fre- 
quently tied in bunches and used as brooms for sweeping about the fireplaces and 
ovens, and in Samoa are used as forks in eating. Indeed, in those islands the word 
‘“tua-niu’’ (coconut leaflet rib) is applied to forks in general, and is also used for 
wire and as the name of certain pinnate ferns which have a slender stiff. midrib. 
Skewers, knitting needles, and toothpicks are also made of tua-niu, and in the early 
days the oily kernels of the nuts of Aleurites moluccana were strung on them, like 
pieces of meat on a brochette, and served the Samoans and other Polynesians as can- 
dles. On many of the Pacific islands tua-niu, neatly smoothed and pointed, were 
made into combs both for use and for ornament. 
Throughout Polynesia dry coconut leaves are used as torches. It is a common 
occurrence when a boat is attempting a landing by night for the natives on shore to 
indicate the passage through the reef by holding up a burning coconut leaf; and on 
making a trip over a stony or difficult path after dark the traveler is preceded by a 
guide with a supply of these leaves, one after another of which he lights, as may be 
necessary. The natives of Guam often use these improvised torches for burning 
rasps’ nests, with which the thickets of the island are infested. 
“Blanco, Flora de Filipinas. Gran Edicién, vol. 3, p. 122, 1879. 
>See Nypa fruticans and Nipheagrostis floridula, 
