CHAPTER XIX 



Sago Making at Bintulu — Departure for the Interior — A Primitive 

 Boat — Up the Bintulu River — A Dangerous Adventure — We 

 are Forced to Return — The Undang-Undang — An Aquatic Fern 

 — -Third Departure for the Interior — Subaqueous Sounds — A 

 Fortunate Meeting — The Pamali on the Tubao — I Force the 

 Pass — With the Kayans — Novel Kind of Idol — Ascent of the 

 Tubao — Diseases of the Kayans — Influence of Floods on Plants 

 — The Bellaga Hills — On the Rejang. 



THE first days of September were employed in drying and 

 arranging the plants collected on the last excursion. Mean- 

 while my zoological collections were enriched by several novelties, 

 amongst others a fine squirrel I had not seen before, which had been 

 captured and dropped by a hawk. Having some spare time, I took 

 the opportunity of going over to the Bintulu houses to watch the 

 sago-making operations which were going on. At any hour of any 

 day one was pretty certain to find some one thus engaged. 



At Bintulu an adult sago palm is worth from one to three dollars, 

 and can give from three to fifteen passos (eighteen to ninety gallons) 

 of " lamanta," or pure sago, three passos of which cost one dollar. 

 The Bintulu sago is of the finest quality, and is in great request, 

 even in Sarawak. 



The palm which produces true sago has a thick stem from 

 twenty-five to thirty-five feet high, which can hardly be encircled 

 by a man's arms. It blossoms only once in its lifetime, and dies 

 with the ripening of its fruits. The natives have discovered that 

 the time when the nutritive pith is accumulated in greatest 

 quantity amongst the fibres in the stem is just before the blossoming. 

 The tree is then felled, its trunk cleaned of the leaves, and cut in 

 sections about three feet in length. These are carried to the river, 

 tied together, and, being very light, are easily floated down the 

 stream. When they are got to the houses they are split in 

 halves lengthwise, and are then ready for the operation called 

 " palo." This consists of breaking up the soft fibrous tissue 

 filled with fecula which occupies (with the exception of a thin, 

 hard external part) the entire mass of the stem. For this pur- 

 pose a wooden implement shaped like a hoe is used. 1 The next 



1 In the Molucca Islands, and in New Guinea as far as Humboldt Bay, 

 on the north coast, I have observed the same kind of implement employed 



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