MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 161 



country hot water is used, a technical advance that may possibly be due to 

 European influence. It is more likely, however, that it is a real native dis- 

 covery, for we know from Tschirch (') that in Java, which has been more' 

 thoroughly under European influence than any other of the Dutch East Indies, 

 smoke was still used for sterilizing the bamboos about 1890. To smoke a 

 tagoek it is turned up side down over a furnace and a smaller bamboo is used 

 to convey the smoke from the flre to the very extremity of the closed end. 

 The smoke pours out of the mouth of the tagoek after traversing its entire 

 length. Either little individual furnaces are used for each tagoek, or else 

 several of the bamboos are smoked over a furnace similar to that which is 

 used for boiling down the juice. The contrivance shows a very intelligent 

 application of a knowledge of the properties of smoke. It would be interest- 

 ing to trace how far this knowledge extends among the less advanced natives 

 of the Malayan region. 



At the only Bandjarese sugar camp visited by the writer, at Kampong 

 Koeboean, in Tanah Djawa, the bamboo receptacles for the juice had been 

 replaced by five gallon oil tins, with a round hole in the side for the insertion 

 of the peduncle. In spite of this evidence of progress in the path of civiliza- 

 tion, the cans were being disinfected by smoking, in exactly the Batak way. 

 Probably only the most advanced natives have experienced the advantages of 

 using hot water. 



The work of the maragot is diflicult, and somewhat dangerous. Since 

 the trunk of the hagot is rough, and difficult to climb, the inflorescence has to 

 be reached by a ladder (sige), which consists at best of notched poles, lashed 

 together, or of the upper parts of tall bamboo poles, from which the lateral 

 branches have been cut off, leaving only stubs two or three inches long, to 

 climb by. The collector has no responsibility for the actual making of the 

 sugar. His duty ends with bringing in the juice : the rest of the work is done 

 by the sugar-maker {parhagot in Asahan ; panggoelo or paragot in Angkola), 



Tlie juice is boiled down in a large iron pan, about three feet in diameter, 

 called halanga in Asahan, and hoeali in Angkola. This pan is set on the top 

 of a hive-shaped clay furnace (delihan) which is moulded in wet clay, allowed 

 to dry, and then burned hard by the fire used in sugar making. The furnace 

 has one opening through the side, or two, on opposite sides, into which the 

 fire wood is fed; the poles are not cut into short lengths, but are pushed 

 further into the furnace as they burn off at the end. In Angkola the furnace 

 and pan are together called tataring. To facilitate free boiling of the liquid, 

 and reduce foaming, various hard nuts, or other objects, are placed in the pan, 

 just as a chemist uses beads or bits of platinum in a boiling flask. The most 

 commonly used seed is called doelang-doelang in both Asahan and Angkola ; 

 unfortunately it has not been identified. Another, the nut of a species of 

 Aleurites, is the djatoc of Asahan, called boeica keras or kamdri in Malay. 



