373 CERAM. [citAr. xxt 



ternvinal spike of fluwors, ailcr wliit'li the tree dies. It 

 grows in swamps, or in swampy hollows on the rocky 

 slopes of hills, wiiore it seems to thrive eqimlly well ai 

 w^hen exposed to the influx of salt or bmuki^h water. 

 The tnidrihs of the immense heaves form one of tlie most 

 useful articles in these lands, supplying the place of 

 hamboo, to which for many purposes they are superior. 

 They are twelve or fifteen feet long, and, when very tine, 

 as tiiick iu the lower part as a man's leg. They are very 

 light, consistiug entirely of a firm pith covered with a hard 

 thin rind or bark. Entii-e houses are built of these ; they 

 form admirable roofing-poles for thatch ; split and well- 

 supported, they do for flooring ; and when chosen of equal 

 size, and pegged together side by side to fill up the panels 

 of framed wooden houses, they have a very neat appeur- 

 ance, and make better walls and partitions than boards, as 

 they do not shrink, require no paint or varnish, and are 

 not a quarter the expense. ^Yhen carefully s|)lit and 

 shaved smooth they are formed into light boards with ]tegs 

 of tlie bark itself, anti are tlie foundation of the leaf- 

 covered boxes of Gorani. All the insect-boxes I used in 

 the Moluccas were thus made at Amboyna, and when 

 covered witli stout paper inside and out, are strong, light, 

 and secure the insfct-jjius remarkably well The lealleta 

 of the sago folded and tied sifle by side on the smaller 

 midribs form the ''atap'* or thatch iu universal use, while 

 the piroduct of the trunk is the staple food of some 

 hundred thousands of mem 



When sago is to be made, a full-grown tree is selected 

 just before it is going to flower. It is cut dowTi close to 

 the ground, tlie leaves and leaf-stalks cleared away, and a 

 broad strip of the bark taken otf the upper side of the 

 trunk. This exposes the pithy raattcTj winch is of a rusty 

 colour near the bottom of the tree, but higlier up pure 



