THE SAGO PALM. 



273 



tampins or leaf bags of sago having been placed in heaps in the shed, 

 the first step is to open them, cast the contents on an inclined plane, 

 about 12 feet square, surrounded by a rim rising about 2 inches from 

 the surface ; the sago, massed together by having remained compressed 

 in the tampin, is here broken up by the common chautzal (a kind of 

 hoe). 



The raw sago having been thus made ready for the manufactory, the 

 first process to which it is subjected is that of a thorough washing, 

 without which it would remain impure and coloured. For this pur- 

 pose strong tubs are employed, about 12 inches deep, 40 inches in 

 diameter at the top, and 6 inches or more at the bottom ; they are bound 

 by three hoops, each formed of about six rattans twisted together. A 

 piece of thin coarse cloth is fastened by its four corners over each tub 

 when used, and hung loosely into it. The moist sago being poured 

 into this strainer, and there broken and bruised by the hand, is 

 agitated until all its fine particles pass through the cloth and descend 

 to the bottom of the tub, while the fragments of leaf, fibre, and other 

 impurities which remain in the cloth are shaken into a rude mass, 

 which is taken up in a bowl and thrown aside. The rapidity and 

 deftness with which this and all the other manipulations are per- 

 formed are very striking. The sago is next stirred with an oar for 

 about an hour, after which it is left to stand for twelve hours, 

 when the water is ladled out, and the sago, which fills about half the 

 tub, is removed to undergo the last purifying process which precedes 

 the granulation. This is performed in a mode at once simple and 

 ingenious, the same principle being availed of which serves the gold 

 and tin miners of the Archipelago to clean the ore ; the more precious 

 matter happening in all three cases to be heavier than that with 

 which it is mixed, and being thus readily separable by the action 

 of running water. 



Two tubs are placed at a distance of 10 or 12 feet from each other, 

 and connected by troughs, raised by a frameworls above them. These 

 troughs are about 10 inches deep, 14 inches broad at the top and 

 11 inches at the bottom, one end being closed and the other open, but 

 having grooves in their sides and bottom, like those of a sluice, into 

 which a series of horizontal pieces of wood or stick fit, each being 

 about three-eighths of an inch in thickness. The end of a piece of 

 cloth, of the breadth of the trough, being placed over the groove at 

 the bottom, the shortest of the sticks is pressed down upon it, and the 

 cloth, thus fastened, is made to hang down over the edge of the trough 

 into the tub below it. The tub at the after end now receives the sago 

 to about two-thirds of its depth, when it is filled up nearly to the top 

 with water. A man now stirs up a portion of the sago with an oar till 

 the water attains a milky appearance, when lie proceeds to pour it into 

 the troughs. To prevent its falling abruptly an inclined piece of 

 wood, 8 inches broad, is fixed across the trough, so as to leave only a 

 narrow slit between it and the end of the trough. The water poured 

 on this descends into the trough, and slowly fiowing to the other end 

 deposits a portion of the sago in its progress. The suspended cloth, 

 becoming saturated, serves at once to maintain and equalize the over- 

 flow of the water into the tub below it. When the water is poured in 



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