UN THE USES OF PANDANUS OR SCREW PALM. 65 



is in some species scarlet, in others yellow, has a highly polished surface, 

 and powerful smell like that of a mango ; it consists of fibrous pulp in 

 consistence exactly like the interior of a sugar-cane and containing even a 

 larger proportion of saccharine matter; it can be chewed or cut with a knife, 

 and when steamed in an oven seems to consist chiefly of syrup. An intoxicat- 

 ing drink can be made from it by fermenting a mash made of the cooked 

 fruit, as also strong spirits by distillation. The seeds are about the size of a 

 haricot bean and are in appearance and flavour like the kernel of a filbert, so 

 excellent to eat that, were they known, they would be in demand in civilized 

 lands as an article of dessert. But their existence (or nature) is unknown to 

 most Europeans well acquainted with the tree, for as much as these kernels 

 are so concealed and protected as to be almost impossible to get at by 

 those unacquainted with the process. The hard capsules which contain 

 them require to be broken in a peculiar manner by a powerful blow from 

 a heavy stone or sledge hammer, whereby their extraction is very easy. 

 They are wholesome and nutritious. I have on some desert places eaten of 

 them at a time as much as would fill a pint measure. The Polynesians are 

 fond of this fruit, and are constantly chewing the cones ; they also thread 

 them on strings after the fashion of a ponderous necklace, so as to form a 

 very gaudy and odoriferous ornament which they eat when they are weary 

 of wearing. Mixed with scraped cocoanut and baked, it is much used on 

 many islands, but as a preserved article of food it is most important, and 

 is in that form peculiar to the Isles of the Equator and the North Pacific. 

 Pounded and dried and packed firmly pressed in baskets, it presents an ap- 

 pearance like coarse saw-dust, and will keep for any length of time. It is 

 called " Kabobo" and is the staple article of consumption in many of the 

 equatorial isles and in the Ralik and Ratak chains. Many atolls in these 

 latitudes are destitute of cocoanut trees, so the " screw palm" is the sole vege- 

 table subsistence of the inhabitants. The " Kabobo" also constitutes the sea 

 stock with which the savage mariners of the Pintados provision their canoes. 

 When required to be eaten, it is mixed with a little water and parched in the 

 sun or baked on hot stones. If it be true that the Pctndanas grows all 

 round the coasts of North Australia, as I have been assured by seamen that it 

 does, and that the Aborigines of those parts are unacquainted with its use 

 — then do they starve in the midst of plenty — as Solomon says " for 

 lack of knowledge people perish." This I do well know from my own 

 experience that the wastes of very much of New Holland (except where 

 there is absolutely bo water either in pools or in ' Alallee' roots) contain 

 infinitely more means of subsistence for man than such isles as Erikub 

 or Gaspar Rico and other desert cays upon which it has been my fortune 

 to sojourn. But inestimable as is the Pandanus in providing food to the 

 inhabitants of desert isles, it is no less valuable to them as the source 

 from whence they derive their shelter, their clothiDg, and whatsoever 



