June 1, 1865.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



SUGAR FROM THE ARENGA PALM. 485 



Tnwak or Neva, the soft brown scurf found at the base of the petioles, 

 Baru, and the horsehair-like material covering the latter, Ejoo or Egu, 

 or Gomuti. It is this last name which some botanists have applied as a 

 genuine, others as a specific one, to the whole plant. In Javanese, 

 the tree is called Aser, the material like horsehair, Duh (occasionally 

 spelt Dok), the gossamer-like substance, Kawul, and the sap, Lagu, 

 which means the sweet material, by distinction. In the Amboynese 

 language, the tree is called JSawa, the horsehair-like material, Makse. 

 In the Ternate language, the tree is called Seho, in the Bali, Jahaka, and 

 in the Bina, Naun. In the Macassar language, the tree is termed Mon- 

 chono, the sap or toddy, Juro ; and in the Mandar, the former Akd and 

 the latter Ki. The Portuguese and other European nations following their 

 example, call the tree and its liquor Sagwire, though no one knows for 

 what reason. 



The Sagwire or Gomute — we had better adopt the latter name, as 

 being the most euphonious — attains a height of thirty or forty feet, is 

 without spines, and bears a dense crown of pinnatescent leaves, which 

 have rather a sombre aspect ; their segments are generally fasciculate, 

 the middle ones five feet long, about four inches broad, linear ensiform, 

 dark green above, white underneath, with distant spinescent teeth, and 

 a bilobed or bifid croso-dentale apex. When very young, they are eaten, 

 like those of the American cabbage-palm (Oreodoxa oleracea, Mart.). The 

 petioles are very stout, and it is at the base of these and completely em- 

 bracing the trunk of the tree, where the horsehair-like material, which 

 co-operates to render this palm so valuable, is produced. This fibrous 

 substance, superior in quality, cheapness, and durability to that obtained 

 from the husk of the cocoa-nut, and removed for its power of resisting 

 wet, is used by the natives of the Indian islands for every purpose of 

 cordage, domestic and naval, a practice in which Europeans have of late 

 years initiated them. The coarser parts, or small twigs, as some authors 

 call them, found with this " vegetable horsehair," are used by all the 

 tribes who write on paper as pens, and they are the arrows used by 

 others to discharge, poisoned or otherwise, from blow-pipes or arrow- 

 tubes. Underneath this material is found a substance of a soft gossamer- 

 like texture, which is imported into China. It is applied as oakum in 

 caulking the seams of ships, and more generally as tinder for kindling 

 fire. It is for this latter purpose that it is chiefly in request among the 

 Chinese. 



Marsden, in his " Sumatra," says, "It is bound on as a thatch, in the 

 same manner as we do straw, and not unfrequently over the galoonpye 

 (bamboo thatch) ; in wdiich case the roof is so durable as never to re- 

 quire removal, the Ejoo being of all vegetable substances the least prone 

 to decay ; and for this reason it is a common practice to wrap a quantity 

 of it round the ends of timbers or posts which are to be fixed in the 

 ground. The Ejoo exactly resembles coarse black horsehair, and it is 



