October i, 1884.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



279 



wangs, cut them opeu and build therein cabins, while such 

 as wish to collect forest tengkawang, devote themselves 

 with all their might exclusively to that purpose. As soon, 

 now, as the fruit is so ripe that they are likely to drop, 

 men, women and children leave their homes and settle in 

 these said cabins, the consequence of which is that the Malay 

 kampongs are often abandoned by three-fourths of the 

 population. 



The fruit are not plucked off, they are allowed to drop. The 

 Native here says that the plucked fruit yield less tallow. 

 If now at such a time the weather is tempestuous, it is a 

 great advantage to the population, for then the fruit fall 

 in vast numbers, and the gathering is soon accomplished ; 

 otherwise it. may last six weeks or two months. A begin- 

 ning is made very early in the morning to collect the 

 fruits; these are picked up from the ground and cast into 

 a basket carried ou the back, and afterwards carried home, 

 the whole day long. That this work is begun so early as 

 at peep of day is to prevent the fallen fruit of the fore- 

 going night from being stolen, and moreover because the 

 wild hogs are exceedingly fond of them. In the woods, 

 where a number of trees are crowded together, there is 

 li-ss danger of these animals, but in the more retired temba- 

 waugs they are a very plague. 



When the fruit are brought home, they are beaten with a 

 stick so long, till the appendages mentioned above are 

 removed, and then they are thrown into heaps till the 

 gathering is doue. It is advisable to protect the fruit 

 against rain, as otherwise some of them will soon shoot, 

 which must act prejudicially both on the quality aud quantity 

 of the tallow. 



The ingathering of the t. lajar is generally performed 

 in a rather different way. The wings of the fruit are bitten 

 Off as they are picked up, which is no easy matter, as they 

 are very tough. For this reason the fruit are sometimes 

 left simply a few days on the ground, till they begin to 

 germinate, and the wings with the hard shell loosen of 

 themselves. When the gathering is accomplished, the greater 

 part of the gatherers return home. 



Then large baskets are made of split bamboo, which can 

 contain from 4 to 500 gantangs. The fruit are put in these, 

 and thus suspended in the water on rafts, whereby it is 

 a necessity that the baskets be not full, lest the fruit that 

 swells enormously by being steeped in water, should burst 

 them. Care must also be taken that they remain quite 

 under water, to prevent the fruit from rising to the surf- 

 ace and' germinating. 



This steeping of the fruit in water has the following 

 consequences: — First, the shell becomes softer and bursts of 

 itself by the swelling of the pulp. Secondly, the tengka- 

 wang, that has remained long enough in the water, is less 

 exposed to the attacks of the boeboek (worm); and thirdly, 

 it is pretended that the quantity of tallow increases con- 

 siderably by the action of the water upon it, and is more 

 easily extracted from the fruit. Whether the proportion 

 of tallow actually increases is a thing that I will not de- 

 termine ; it is. however, a fact that the longer the fruit 

 remain in the water, the more tallow can afterwards be 

 obtained from them; but this may also be explained by 

 the common union of the parts of the pulp being broken 

 by the action of the water, and the separation of the 

 tallow thus becomes easier. 



It is better to leave the fruit for 30 or 40 days in the 

 baskets, but sometimes they are there as long as three 

 months. A shorter period than 30 days, however, is not 

 advisable, because then the paddi tengkawang is liable to 

 be infested by the boeboek, and yields less tallow. Whereas 

 if the fruit is left longer in the water, it does result in 

 a more copious yield of tallow, but at the expense of the 

 quality aud the peculiar yellow colour which distinguishes 

 the superior tengkawang tallow. It is also specially lighter. 

 After the fruits have lain long enough in the water, 

 they are taken ouc and peeled by hand, or else the shells 

 an- beaten off with a piece of wood; the pulp then mostly 

 splits into four and is much swollen. The next process 

 is the drying, on frames knocked up in the interim, ami 

 not covered, on which the fruit are spread out. On the 

 appearance of rain, they are covered up, and every evening 

 tiny are brought in-doors to expose them again in the 

 morning till they are quite dry. Then they are called pa Idt 

 tenykavxiny, which term implies the dried, split pulp. If 

 the paddi tengkawang is not stored up quite dry, it will 



soon rot; but if the process is carefully attended to, it 

 can keep a whole year. 



The above treatment of the tengkawang fruit, which 

 might be called the wet treatment, is in general use in the 

 Kapeeas territory. A very different treatment is adopted 

 in other parts, for instance, in Landak. The treatment in 

 use there may be called the dry process. The fruit are 

 not at all steeped in water, but are dried, even over a fire. 

 The. paddi tengkawang obtained in this manner, is accord- 

 ing to the general opinion of the Natives here, of much 

 less value than what is obtained by the wet process. It 

 is soon attacked by boeboek and yields also less tallow; but 

 then again the tallow is much harder. 



Here at Sanggau the tengkawah fruit are treated in 

 another manner. Directly after the gathering, the shell is 

 broken, the pulp is cut into slices and these are dried in 

 the sun, to obtain from the product thus treated, which 

 must then be immediately pressed, the so-called minjak 

 tengkawang Soentie. This is considered the finest of the 

 tengkawang tallows, and is only made in small quantities 

 for private use, viz., for culinary purposes. The quantity 

 of tallow obtained in this manner is, in proportion, much 

 less than when the tengkawang is treated according to the 

 wet system. Hence it is seldom applied. 



Let us now examine in what manner the Native separates 

 tin' tallow from the paddi tengkawang. 



He begins by pounding the paddi. This is often clone 

 in the common rice-block with the rice-pestle ; but some- 

 times the pestle is made of a short heavy piece of wood, 

 fixed to a long pole, placed horizontally, and turning in 

 the middle round a horizontal axis; then they tread upon 

 one end, which raises the stamper, and upon being let 

 loose tin- stamper tails into the block. 



When the pounding is done, the tallow is to be expressed. 

 For this two arrangements are required, one to seethe the 

 meal and one to press it. This seething and pressing is 

 done simultaneously. 



For the seething a long hollow wooden cylinder is used, 

 in which a loose bottom of split bamboo at a little distance 

 from the base is placed, and then closed at top with a 

 wooden cover. This is suspended with its base over the 

 water of a large iron pan, in such a manner that the 

 bottom does not reach the water. It is then filled with 

 tengkawang meal and closed, after which thewater is made 

 to boil. The steam then mounts into the cylinder and 

 penetrates to the meal, which becomes more compact aud 

 suiKs: then the cylinder is filled up again with meal, and 

 when all the meal is thoroughly heated to the top, it is 

 ready to be pressed. To render the spreading of the steam 

 as regular as possible, a piece of bamboo is fixed in the 

 middle of the cylinder vertically over a hole in the bottom, 

 the sides of which are perforated here and there. 



The size of the cylinders is various. Some hold as much 

 as 75 kattis of meal. 



The press is more than a fathom high, and consists of 

 two horizontal beams, one of which rests on the ground, 

 and connected to each other with supports. In the upper 

 beam is an oblong square vertical aperture or groove, in 

 the lower one a square hole. Between these two beams 

 are two heavy pieces of wood, placed with their broad flat 

 sides towards each other. They are hewu thin at, the 

 extremities, and rest with one extremity in the hole of 

 the lower beam, while the other extremities are enclosed 

 in the above-mentioned groove, iu which they can be moved 

 towards aud from each other. At the inner side of each 

 is a notch running slanting downwards, in such a manner 

 that if the pieces of wood are brought together with their 

 flat sides against each other, the notches tally. If. now, 

 you proceed to press, the two pieces must be placed bo 

 as to form a V; in the notches an oepeh (sheath of the 

 piuang) is bound, forming a slanting gutter protruding out 

 of the press; then a bag filled with hot tengkawang meal 

 is laid between the press above the pinang sheath, and 

 then the two pieces of wood are driven together by means 

 of quoins which are driven into the mentioned groove. 

 The fluid grease then flows from the bag into the pinang- 

 shr.it h and so out of the press, and is caught up in limbs 

 ill bamboo, or iu a sort of tubs made of bark. The press- 

 bags must be made of plaited ratau, otherwise they are 

 like to burst. The driving of the quoins is hard work, and 

 the two men who do this place themselves for that purpose 

 upon the upper beam. 



