( 8 ) 
a small hole in the top, pouring in coconut oil and 
then hanging them in the smoke of a wood fire. 
There is usually a weight attached to the lower end 
of each stick to keep it straight and smoking may 
take from two or three days to as many weeks, 
according to the darkness of colour desired. The 
smoked sticks are more easily prepared than the 
lighter coloured ones and less perfect sticks may 
be used. 
Sometimes the pale or cream-coloured sticks are 
prepared in a rather elaborate fashion. For the 
first two or three days they are dried in a cool airy 
\ place, which is not in full sunlight. After this they 
I are each day, for a period of forty days, polished 
with a woollen rag on which have been placed the 
siliceous hairs from the leaf-sheaths of the bamboo. 
During the whole of this time the sticks must be 
kept in a cool well-ventilated place away from the 
direct rays of the sun and protected from moisture. 
Should they become moist mildew speedily develops 
and they are spoiled. Other elaborate methods of 
preparation are also used to prepare, fine sticks. 
The values attached to the more expensive 
grades of Malacca sticks are largely artificial. The 
best grades are supposed to be free from any notice- 
able flaws, of even colour throughout, of uniform 
diameter, which should be as nearly as possible % 
of an inch, and with a length of not less than 38 
inches between the nodes. Sticks which lack one 
or more of these characteristics may have a low 
value, but they are just as useful as sticks, at any 
rate so far as strength and general usefulness are 
concerned. 
