458 



INDIGENOUS SAGO AND TOBACCO FROM NEW GUINEA, 



white, and about as hard as a dry apple. The pith is cut or broken 

 down into a coarse powder (1) by means of a club of hard and 

 heavy wood, having a piece of sharp quartz rock (2) firmly 

 imbedded into its upper end. By successive blows, narrow strips 

 of the pith are cut away till it falls down into the cylinder formed 

 by the bark, leaving only a skin not more than half an inch in 

 thickness (3). These pith-strips are then put into a washing- 

 trough made of the large sheathing vases of the leaves, and the 

 strainer is the fibrous covering from the leaf-stalks of the young 

 cocoa-nut. Water is then poured on the mass of pith which is 

 pressed against the strainer, and kneaded until all the starch is 

 dissolved {suspended, sago, like any other starch, being insoluble 

 in cold water, J.H.M.), and passes through into a trough with a 

 depression in its centre, into which it is deposited, the surplus 

 water trickling away. When the trough is nearly full, the mass 

 of starch, which has a slightly reddish tinge, is made up into 

 cylinders, wrapped up in sago leaves, and is the raw sago or 

 sago meal." 



Notes on the above description (communicated to me verbally 

 by Mr. Bevan) : — 



(1) Chips or small lumps would be better. The men form a 

 heap, and the women gather it up. 



(2) No stone was used by the natives Mr. Bevan saw in the act of 

 making sago, only wooden flails or adzes. The chopping is done 

 by men ; the women do the whole of the remainder of the sago- 

 process. 



(3) The remainder of the process may be described thus. — A 

 spathe of sago-palm or cocoa-nut is supported, the broad end 

 uppermost, on a wooden fork. The women take the chopped pith 

 (see 1) put into the funnel-shaped cavity of the spathe, knead it 

 well with the hands, at the same time allowing water to pass 

 through the mass to carry ofi" the grains of sago which are set free 

 by the operation of kneading. 



