202 Miscellanies. 



moves the skin, and the pressure on the table enables the table to remove 

 the fleshy substance. It is usually pulled but once; that is to say, when 

 the strip is placed under the knife ; about two feet remain on the side of 

 the operator, which he grasps to pull it through ; this done, he turns it, 

 placing the other end under the knife, and grasping the end which now 

 shows only the fibre, he by the second pull finishes this part of the pro- 

 cess. The handful of threads or fibres is then placed with others on a 

 branch of a tree, or peg, in the side of his hut, till a quantity is accumu- 

 lated. Hung up in this way for an hour or two, the fibres are dried and 

 fit for merchandise. T. M. M. thinks that very little, at the most not a 

 fourth of the fibre, is lost by this process. Blanco imagines one half, 

 he also thinks it undergoes a second process, being passed under a sort of 

 saw. T. M. M. supposes this to be only a bad way of performing the 

 process just described, it being much easier to draw the strip under a 

 saw than under a knife. But as a much larger portion of the skin is left 

 adhering to the fibres in this way, it is much less valuable. The process 

 by the knife is so tedious, that three men will make only thirteen and a 

 half pounds in an ordinary day's work. 



The fibres thus prepared are separated into various qualities by the 

 women. They weave them with great dexterity, even in the dust. If 

 the hemp is to be used for making cloth, it is first wound into a ball about 

 the size of a child's head, which is then placed in the wooden mortar used 

 for husking rice, and is pounded for some time with the wooden pestle. 

 This operation renders it very flexible, and less liable to break. This 

 being done, the fibres are tied together, which is usually done by women 

 and girls. The weaving process is the same as for cotton fabrics; but if 

 the hemp (i. e. plantain) fibres are very fine, they place the women who 

 weave it under a cover or shade, because the wind easily breaks the 

 threads. The cloth being woven, is placed for a day and night in water, 

 with a little lime made from sea-shells. It is afterwards washed and 

 stretched out. Although the hemp is strong, yet it is inferior to linen 

 thread, and to thread of European hemp, both in respect of strength and 

 in the gloss and touch. Hemp (i. e. of the plantain) is produced of good 

 quality in the province of Batangas, and in other parts, but not equal in 

 quality to that of Camarines province; and this latter again appears in- 

 ferior to that of Panai and Marinduque Islands. • On this point, however, 

 opinions differ. 



The fruit of the hemp plant is eaten. The water (sap or juice) 

 collected in a hole cut in the trunk of the tree, at the foot, is said to 

 be a remedy for contraction of the membrutn virile, a singular com- 

 plaint, which ceases not to be frequent in the Bisayas provinces, and 

 which is generally accompanied by a contraction of the tongue. The 

 Englishman, Dampier, was mistaken when he said, that the hemp plant 

 was known only in the island of Mindanao. 



