380 A NATURALIST IN CELEBES ch. xm 



is surrounded with a cloak of reverential myth. It is 

 very generally attributed to the god Kiriwaerong, who 

 presides over the ' seho ' tree, as it is called in the native 

 language. 



In some places in Minahassa, and more generally in Java, a 

 coarse black sugar or treacle is made from the sap of this palm. 



But besides wine and sugar the arenga palm provides 

 many other useful products. The dense plexus of hairy 

 fibres given off by the leaf-stalks is useful as a tow for 

 making ropes, strings, and brooms. This is called the 

 gumutu or wursan in the Tondano dialect (56). The 

 fibres are black, coarse, and rather brittle, and cannot in 

 consequence be used with the same confidence as the more 

 valuable manilla hemp fibres,, but nevertheless they make 

 very good thick ropes, especially valuable on board ship as 

 hawsers, on account of their power of resisting the dele- 

 terious effects of constant soaking in sea-water. 



The wood of the seho tree is hard and strong, and is 

 frequently used by the natives for the floors of their 

 houses. The half-ripe fruits when peeled and then baked 

 form a not unpleasant article of food. The young buds 

 can also be eaten as a vegetable. 



When the trees have ceased to provide a sufficiently 

 copious supply of sap they are cut down, and the pith 

 chopped out and used as an inferior kind of sago. It is 

 not considered to be a first-rate form of food, and is rarely 

 used when there is a good supply of rice or Indian corn. 



The true sago palm is not so commonly found in 

 Minahassa as it is in Amboyna and some of the other 

 islands of the Moluccas. Except in the Tonsawang dis- 

 trict (22), it is not very highly valued for its pith ; but its 

 leaves are everywhere considered to make the very best 

 ' attap ' roofs. They are prepared in the same way as 

 those of the arenga described in a previous chapter. 



