CH. Yin. CHABACTERISTIC8 OF 8ANGIB ISLANDS 195 



Eight and proper as it undoubtedly is to abolish every 

 form of slavery, however mUd it may be, I cannot help 

 thinking that the Dutch are wise and just to allow the 

 system to remain in Sangir until the people have more 

 fully benefited by the influence of civilisation. A sudden 

 and sweeping reform in this direction might lead to pohtical 

 catastrophes, which would throw the natives back for 

 generations and lead to untold mischief to the prestige of 

 the Dutch Government. By the estabhshment of elemen- 

 tary schools and the encouragement of missionary work, 

 the Government is preparing the way for a certain and 

 permanent reform in the future, and I have no doubt that 

 in a few generations slavery will be extinct in Sangir, as it 

 is in many of the more thoroughly colonised possessions of 

 the Dutch in the East Indies. 



The food of the Sangirese consists of trepang, turtle, 

 various kinds of fish, the pith of the sagoweer palm, 

 rice, Indian corn, papaya (kowle — Carica papaya), batatas 

 (B. edulis), a kind of pea called siafu (probably a species of 

 phaseolus), and yams. 



A cm-ious implement (fig. 27) is used by the Sangirese 



for flaking out the pith of 



the arenga palm. It is 



made of bamboo, and is 



held in both hands like a 



chopper or axe. "When 



the native has felled his 



tree and split it in two 



halves, he sits down across 



the half which retains the ,, „„ t, t, • , x , , , 



Fig. 27. — Bamboo implement used by the 



sago or pith, and phes Sangirese for flaking out the pith from 

 . . . .„ the trunk of the sagoweer pahn. 



his sago chopper. By 



striking rapidly and sharply vnth the edge formed where 

 the bamboo has been cut across transversely, the pith is 



o 2 



