n EQUATORIAL VEGETATION 261 



septa of the joints. This prevents the water from running 

 out too quickly, and facilitates its being poured out in a 

 regulated stream to the last drop. Three or four of these 

 water-vessels are tied together and carried on the back, and 

 they stand very conveniently in a corner of the hut. Water- 

 pipes and aqueducts are also readily made from bamboo tubes 

 supported at intervals on two smaller pieces tied crosswise. 

 In this way a stream of water is often conveyed from some 

 distance to the middle of a village. Measures for rice or 

 palm-wine, drinMng-vessels, and water-dippers, are to be found 

 almost ready-made in a joint of bamboo ; and when fitted 

 with a cap or lid they form tobacco or tinder-boxes. Perches 

 for parrots, with food and water vessels, are easily made out 

 of a single piece of bamboo, while with a little more labour 

 elegant bird -cages are constructed. In Timor a musical 

 instrument is formed from a single joint of a large bamboo 

 by carefully raising seven strips of the hard skin to form 

 strings, which remain attached at both ends and are elevated 

 by small pegs wedged underneath, the strings being prevented 

 from splitting off by a strongly-plaited ring of a similar mate- 

 rial bound round each end. An opening cut on one side 

 allows the bamboo to vibrate in musical notes when the harp- 

 like strings are sharply pulled with the fingers. In Java 

 strips of bamboo supported on stretched strings and struck 

 with a small stick produce the higher notes in the "game- 

 lung " or native band, which consists mainly of sets of gongs 

 and metallic plates of various sizes. Almost all the common 

 Chinese paper is made from the foliage and stems of some 

 species of bamboo, while the young shoots, as they first spring 

 out of the ground, are an excellent vegetable, quite equal to 

 artichokes. Single joints of bamboo make excellent cooking- 

 vessels while on a journey. Rice can be boiled in them to 

 perfection, as well as fish and vegetables. They serve too for 

 jars in which to preserve sugar, salt, fruit, molasses, and 

 cooked provisions ; and for the smoker, excellent pipes and 

 hookahs can be formed in a few minutes out of properly 

 chosen joints of bamboo. 



These are only a sample of the endless purposes to which 

 the bamboo is applied in the countries of which it is a 

 native, its chief characteristic being that in a few minutes it 



