90 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



which always grows in wet places, generally in low ground 

 near the sea, and it will even grow where the water is 

 brackish.* The palm is thicker than a man's body, 

 and its height is about 25 or 30 feet. The trunk is 

 covered with large leaves bearing long hard spines. A 

 mature tree produces a large vertical spike of flowers 

 and then dies. When they wish to collect sago, the 

 natives cut down a full-grown palm and clear it of its 

 leaves and leaf-sheaths. A wide strip of the bark is 

 then cut off from the side of the tree which lies uppermost 

 and the sago is exposed. The bark of the tree is really 

 nothing more than a shell about an inch in thickness, 

 enclosing the pith or sago, which is a brownish pulpy 

 substance separated by fibrous strands. The pith is 

 separated from the bark by means of the sago-beater, 

 which is a sort of wooden hammer made in two pieces, 

 a handle about a foot and a half long, carrying a head 

 about twelve inches long ; the hitting face of the head 

 is about two inches in diameter, and it often bears a 

 rather sharp rim which is useful in clearing the pith from 

 the bark. 



When all the pith has been beaten out of the shell 

 of the tree it is carried away to the nearest water, where 

 the sago is extracted. A trough made of two wide 

 basin-like leaf-bases of the sago palm is set up on 

 crossed sticks about three feet from the ground in such a 

 way that one basin is a little higher than the other. 

 Lumps of the pith are then kneaded in the upper part 



* The very interesting discovery was made by Mr. Staniforth 

 Smith of sago growing at an altitude of 3500 feet in the region of 

 Kikor River, British New Guinea. — Gcog. Journal, vol. xxxix. p. 329. 



