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destruction of the entire tree. The Mdbong Palms are very 
plentiful near the mouths of all the rivers, and are prized also 
for house-building, &c. Their stems being quite round, un- 
branched, and generally measuring half a foot in diameter, little 
trouble is necessary, beyond felling the tree and cutting it mto 
lengths. The outside rind is hard and an inch thick: the inner 
portion being, as in all Monocotyledonous stems, the most 
recently formed, is soft, and readily decays, which causes the 
Nibong to be more used by the poor than the rich inhabitants. 
Posts, formed of this tree, last only three or four years, and then 
require either support or renewal. Rafters and flooring are 
made of the hardest part. The laths for floors are bound 
together, when laid at distances of two feet asunder, by rattans ; 
a plan adopted in order that the dirt and rubbish of the house 
may fall through the interstices of the floor, and be washed 
away by the next high tide of the river. 
The Bamboo, of which the shoots are cooked by the natives 
and which the Europeans eat pickled, is as useful to the Dyaks 
as the Wibong to the Malays, and grows as abundantly in the 
interior as the other does on the coasts. There are many kinds ; 
but the most esteemed is the Large or Water Bamboo, which 
attains a height of sixty feet, and appears to thrive best in the 
rich soil of mountain-sides. Six other sorts, all much smaller, 
are still very valuable ; for they grow in more accessible places 
and have harder stems than the Large Bamboo. They are 
useful, as in India, for an infinity of purposes; and the poor 
people, who cannot afford cooking-pots of earth or brass, even 
contrive to apply them to that use, in the following manner. 
The Malays and Dyaks cut the green Bamboo in lengths of two 
or three feet, and fill the interior with rice or meat, chopped 
into little pieces, and mixed with water. To cook the food 
properly, the fire must come exactly in contact with the Bamboo 
joint, which rests on the ground beyond; while the green and 
hard part of the cane, touched by the flame, resists it so long, 
that the provisions are sufficiently prepared before this singular 
pot ignites. A bundle of leaves, placed in the mouth, serves for 
’ alid.* These Bamboos are so valuable, that like, the fruit-trees 
planted near a village, they become individual property. 
Next in the rank of useful vegetable productions is the Cocoa- 
nut Palm, too well known to require description here. Unfor- 
tunately, the wars, which prevailed on the western coasts of 
* The rice, called Pulut, hereafter to be described, is most relished when 
thus cooked in a pot of green Bamboo. 
