WHERE OUR SUGAk-CAKE CAME FROM. 69 



is packed in large cylindiieal baskets of bamboo, 

 and is ready to be taken to market and shipped 

 abroad.* 



Three species of the sugar-cane are recognized by 

 botanists : the Saccharum sinensis of China ; the 

 Saccharum officinarum of India, which was introduced 

 by the Arabs into Southern Europe, and thence trans- 

 ported to our own country f and the West Indies ; and 

 the Saccharum violaceuni of Tahiti, of which the cane 

 of the Malay Archipelago is probably only a variety. 

 This view of the last species is strengthened by the 

 similarity of the names for it in Malaysia and Poly- 

 nesia. The Malays call it tahu ; the inhabitants of 

 tlie Philippines, tiihii j the Kayans of Borneo, turo ; 

 the natives of Floris, between Java and Timur, and 

 of Tongatabu, in Polynesia, tan ; the people of Tahiti 

 and the Marquesas, to / and the Sandwdch Islanders, Ico. 



It is either a native of the archipelago or was in- 

 troduced in the remotest times. The Malays used to 

 cultivate it then as they do now, not for the purpose 

 of making sugar, Tjut for its sweet juice, and great 

 quantities of it are seen at this time of year in all 

 the markets, usually cut up into short pieces and the 

 outer layers or rind removed. These people appear 

 also to have been wholly ignorant of the mode of 

 making sugar from it, and all the sugar, or more 

 iiroperly molasses, tliat was used, was obtained then 

 as it is now in the Eastern islands, namely, by boil- 



* During 1865 the government sold 250,000 piculs (16,666 tons) of 

 sugar, but the total exported from Java was two million piculs. 



t Our word sugar comes from tlio Arabic sakar^ and that from the 

 Sanscrit sarkara, thus imlicatiug in its name how it first came to be 

 known to Europeans. 



