CHSJPNFSS OF FOOD. 



381 



tree!-tni!ik, perhaps tweaty feet long and four or tiv*? in 

 circumference, converted into food with so little liibour 

 and inrparatioii. A good-sized tree will produce tbii-ty 

 tomaus or bmudles of thirty pounds cfich, and each toman 

 will make sixty cakes of three to the pound. Two of 

 these cakes are as much as a man can eat at one meal, and 

 five are considered a full day's allowance ; so that, reckon- 

 ing a tree to produce l,8t>0 cakes, weighing 600 pounds, it 

 will su[iply a man with food for a whole year. The labour 

 to produce this is very moderate. Two men will finish a 

 tree in five days, and two women will bake the whole Into 

 cakes in five days more ; but the raw sago will keep very 

 wa>ll, and can be baked as wanted, so that we may estimate 

 that in ten days a man may produce food for the whole 

 year. This is on the supposition that he possesses sago 

 trees of his own, for they are now all private pi-operty. If 

 he does not, he has to pay about seven and sixpence for 

 one ; and as labour here is five pence a day, the total cost 

 of a year's food for one man is about twelve shillings. 

 The effect of this cheapness of food is decidedly prejudicial, 

 for the inhabitants of the sago countries are never so well 

 off as those where rice is cultivated. Many of the people 

 here have neither vegetables nor fruit, but live almost 

 entirely on sago and a Uttle fish. Having few occupations 

 at home, they wander about on petty trading or lishmg 

 expeditions to the neighbouring islands ; and as far as the 

 comforts of life are concerned, ai'e much inferior to the 

 wild hill-Dyaks of Borneo, or to many of the more bar- 

 barous tribes of the Archipelago. 



The cuUQtiy ronnd Waras- warns is low and swampy, 

 and owing to the absence of cultivation there were scarcely 

 any paths leading into the forest. I was therefore imable 

 to collect much during my enforced stay, and found no 

 rare buds or insects to improve my opinion of Ceram as a 

 collecting gi*ound. Finding it quite impossible to get men 

 here to accompany me on the whole voyage, I was obliged 

 to be content with a crew to take me as far as Wahai, on 

 the middle of the north coast of Ceram, and the chief 

 Dutch station in the island. The journey took us live 

 days, owing to calms and light winds, and no incident of 

 any interest occurred on it, nor did I obtain at our 



