THE SAGO PALM. 135 



and weak. After having selected a nut fit for its dinner, the 

 crab begins its operations by tearing the husk, fibre by fibre, 

 from that end under which the three eye-holes are situated ; 

 it then hammers upon one of them with its heavy claws, until 

 an opening is made; hereupon it turns round, and, by the 

 aid of its posterior pincers, extracts the whole albuminous 

 substance. It inhabits deep burrows, where it accumulates 

 surprising quantities of picked fibres of cocoa-nut husks, on 

 which it rests as on a bed. Its habits are diurnal, but every 

 night it is said to pay a visit to the sea, no doubt for the 

 piu'pose of moistening its branchiae. It is very good to eat, 

 living, as it does, on choice vegetable substances, and the great 

 mass of fat accumulated under the tail of the larger ones 

 sometimes yields, when melted, as much as a quart of limpid oil. 

 Thus, our taking possession of the Keeling Islands, as a coaling 

 station for the steamers from Australia to Ceylon, bodes no 

 good to the Birgus." * 



In every zone we find nations in a low degree of civilisation 

 living almost exclusively upon a single animal or plant. The 

 Laplander has his reindeer, the Eskimo his seal, the Sandwich 

 Islander his taro-root; and thus also we find the natives of a great 

 part of the Indian Archipelago living almost exclusively upon 

 the pith of the sago palm (Sagus fariniferus). This tree, 

 which is of such great importance to the indolent Malay, as it 

 almost entirely relieves him of the necessity of labour, grows 

 at first very slowly, and is covered with thorns. As soon, how- 

 ever, as the stem is once formed, it shoots upwards with such 

 rapidity, that it speedily attains its full height of ten yards, 

 with a girth of five or six feet, losing in this stage its thorny 

 accompaniments. The crown is larger and thicker than that of 

 the cocoa-nut tree; the efflorescence colossal, forming an immense 

 bunch, the branches of which spread out like the arms of a 

 gigantic candelabrum. The tree must, however, be felled 

 before the fruit begins to form, as otherwise the farina would 

 be exhausted, which man destines for his food. WTien the 

 trunk has been cut and split into convenient pieces, the 

 pith is scooped out, kneaded with water, and strained, to 

 separate the meal from the fibres. One tree will produce from 



* " The Sea and its Living Wonders," second edition, p. 211. 



