BY J. H. MAIDEN. 459 



The following slightly different account of the operation of sago 

 manufacture, as carried on in New Guinea, is taken from " A 

 Voyage to New Guinea, &c," by Capt. Thomas Forrest, 2nd ed., 

 1780, p. 39, et seq. 



" The sago or libby tree has, like the coco nut tree, no distinct 

 bark that peels off, and may be defined as a long tube of hard 

 wood, about two inches thick, containing a pulp or pith mixed 

 with many long fibres. The tree being felled, it is cut into lengths 

 of about five or six feet. A part of the hard wood is then sliced 

 off, and the workman^ coming to the pith, cuts across (generally 

 with an adze made of hard wood called aneebong) the longitudinal 

 fibres and the pith together, leaving a part at each end uncut, so that, 

 when it is excavated, there remains a trough, into which the pulp 

 is again put, mixed with water, and beat with a piece of wood ; 

 then the fibres, separated from the pulp, float on top, and the flour 

 subsides. After being cleared in this manner by several waters, 

 the pulp is put into cylindrical baskets, made of the leaves of the 

 tree, and, if it is to be kept some time, those baskets are generally 

 sunk in fresh water to keep it moist." 



Another allusion to New Guinea sago (and this refers to a 

 spurious one) is in Hassall's "Food and its Adulterations," in 

 which occurs the passage : — " Pareira also states that he received 

 from Professor Guibourt samples of " Sagou des Maldives de 

 Blanche, donne par lui, and, Sagou de la Nouvelle Guinea 

 donne par lui" and that he found them to be factitious sagos 

 prepared from potato starch. The grains of the New Guinea sago 

 were bright red on one side and whitish on the other." 



It is well-known that France and Germany first taught Eui'ope 

 how to manufacture " peai'l sago " out of potato starch, but the 

 sample now before you is undoubtedly unsophisticated New Guinea 

 sago, procured from a village the natives of which are probably 

 ignorant of the arts of adulteration, which belong only to civiliza- 

 tion. 



