MODE OF COOKING RICE. 37 



of sixty feet, and appears to thrive best on the 

 sides of mountains, in very rich soil. The other 

 kinds, of which there are six, are much smaller, but 

 are very useful to the natives, as they grow in more 

 attainable situations, generally on the banks of the 

 rivers, and their stems are said to be of a harder 

 nature than those of the large bamboo. They are used, 

 as in India, and in all countries where they are produced, 

 for an infinity of purposes, and in house-building they 

 take the place of the nibongs, except in their per- 

 manent habitations, which have hard wood posts ; the 

 smaller kinds are used as cooking pots by the natives 

 when in the jungle, and by those whose poverty pre- 

 vents them purchasing the pots of earth or brass, called 

 ' priuck,' which the Malays bring to them for sale. 



The rice called ' pulut,' hereafter to be described, 

 is always cooked by the Malays and Dyaks in a green 

 bamboo, this mode of preparing it being most esteemed 

 amongst all their tribes. For the purposes of cooking, 

 the bamboo is cut into lengths of about two to three feet ; 

 these being filled with the rice or meat cut into small 

 pieces, and having a sufficiency of water, are placed 

 over the fire in such a position that the joint of the 

 bamboo does not come in contact with it, but rests 

 upon the ground beyond it, the fire being placed under 

 the green and harder part of the cane, which resists the 

 effects of the heat and flame until the provisions are 

 sufficiently prepared ; a bundle of leaves placed in the 

 mouth of the cane answers the purposes of the lid of 

 an ordinary cooking pot. This cane is of such value 



