SAGO, LENTILS 33 



and, like all palms, its trunk is marked with the scars of 

 fallen leaves, but these do not fall off until the tree is many 

 years old, and, as they have great sheaths at their bases 

 which wrap it completely round, the trunk appears to be 

 shorter and thicker than it really is. The leaves are enormous, 

 measuring as much as twenty feet in length. They are 

 pinnate -shaped with very numerous leaflets, the middle ones 

 of which are often as much as two or three feet long. 



In its natural condition, when about ten or fifteen years 

 old the tree blossoms and then dies. But on a sago plantation 

 the trees are felled just as they begin to flower, because the 

 pith is considered to be in the best condition at that moment. 

 The trunks are cut open and the white pith inside is bruised 

 into a coarse powder. It is then removed from the trunk, 

 thrown into water, and stirred about until the starchy con- 

 stituents are dissolved. This starchy water is then drained 

 through a sieve and allowed to settle. After a time the clear 

 water is drawn off and the starch at the bottom of the tank 

 is dried ; it is called sago-meal. 



For export the moist sago is rubbed through sieves of 

 different degrees of fineness, and is thus formed into grains, 

 called according to their size pearl, or medium, or bullet. 

 A single tree produces as much as 900 Ib. Sago is a light, 

 nutritious, and easily digested food. 



CULTIVATION. The sago-palm, like rice, grows in swampy 

 places where there is plenty of rain and great heat, so that 

 rice and sago plantations are often found side by side. The 

 tree sends up suckers from its roots, and it is from these that 

 new trees are obtained. 



SOURCES OF SUPPLY. The Malay Peninsula is considered to 

 be the home of the sago palm, and it is from there that we 

 obtain our chief supplies. 



LENTILS (Lens esculenta). 'And Esau said to Jacob, " Feed 

 me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage. ..." Then Jacob 

 gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils.' Gen. xxv. 30, 34. 



Those lentils which Jacob gave Esau were the Egyptian 



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