238 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



Some of those who are addicted to it lose their intellectual faculties, are seized with 

 trembling, or become stupid, absent-minded, or even insane." 



Sugar. — In making sugar the fresh tuba is poured into kettles, beneath which a fire 

 is kept burning, dried fronds, husks, and shells of coconuts being used for fuel, as 

 well as mangrove and other hard woods. The sap soon turns brown and becomes 

 thicker and thicker, until it assumes a semiviscid consistency, forming what is in the 

 East Indies known as "jaggery" — a kind of coarse, moist, brown sugar. If the jag- 

 gery is allowed to drain in baskets the more fluid part will drain into pans placed to 

 receive it, in the form of sirup or molasses. The remaining sugar is dried and the 

 lumps broken up. In this form, combined with grated coconut meat, it can be made 

 into sweetmeats. Coconut sugar is not made so extensively in Guam at the present 

 time as formerly, before copra was in such great demand; but there are natives who 

 still make it rather than buy imported sugar from the stores, and many families use 

 the sirup ("almibar de tuba dulce") in their daily economy. 



The roofs in the majority of houses in Guam (PI. xx) are thatched with coconut 

 leaves (higae). These are split down the midrib, the two halves placed together 

 end for end, and the leaflets braided diagonally. Long mats are woven (pupung) to 

 cover the ridge of the roof, and secured in place by wooden pins passing through 

 them below the ridgepole and projecting on each side. The higae are thoroughly 

 dried before being lashed to the roof timbers. The pupung are put on green. 

 Coconut thatch is not so durable as that of the nipa palm; a roof of coconut leaves 

 lasting but four years, while one of nipa will last from ten to twelve. Neti thatch 

 lasts even longer, b In Samoa the sides of the houses are inclosed by coarse Venetian 

 blinds made of coconut-leaf mats, which may be triced up or lowered at will. In 

 Guam the walls of the houses are stationary and are sometimes composed of woven 

 reeds (saguale) of Trichoon roxbuTghii (PI. XX), which are also used for ceilings and 

 partitions. Coconut leaves are not suflficiently durable for this purpose. Baskets 

 made of them are only serviceable when fresh, becoming dry and brittle in a few 

 days. The whole leaves are used to keep the thatch from blowing in windy weather, 

 by tying the tips together and allowing the heavy petioles to hang suspended over 

 the ridge. In Samoa, though the houses of the natives are thatched with wild sugar 

 cane, coconut leaves are always used for the side mats. 



The ribs of the leaflets are slender, strong, and somewhat elastic. They are fre- 

 quently tied in bunches and used as brooms for sweeping about the fireplaces and 

 ovens, and in Samoa are used as forks in eating. Indeed, in those islands the word 

 "tua-niu" (coconut leaflet rib) is applied to forks in general, and is also used for 

 wire and as the name of certain pinnate ferns which have a slender stiff midrib. 

 Skewers, knitting needles, and toothpicks are also made of tua-niu, and in the early 

 days the oUy kernels of the nuts of Aleurites moluccana were strung on them, like 

 pieces of meat on a brochette, and served the Samoans and other Polynesians as can- 

 dles. On many of the Pacific islands tua-niu, neatly smoothed and pointed, were 

 made into combs both for use and for ornament. 



Throughout Polynesia dry coconut leaves are used as torches. It is a common 

 occurrence when a boat is attempting a landing by night for the natives on shore to 

 indicate the passage through the reef by holding up a burning coconut leaf; and on 

 making a trip over a stony or difficult path after dark the traveler is preceded by a 

 guide with a supply of these leaves, one after another of which he lights, as may be 

 necessary. The natives of Guam often use these improvised torches for burning 

 wasps' nests, with which the thickets of the island are infested. 



a Blanco, Flora de Filipinas. Gran Edici6n, vol. 

 ''See Xypa fruticans and Xipheagrostis floridula. 



3, p. 122, 1879. 



