2M 
SAGO, 
The branches, dried and cut to lengths of 6 to 10 feet and 
in this state called gaba gaba , soon gain a fine, brown, 
shining colour; the hard shell preserves the spongy iriteriour 
from destruction when it is net exposed to rain and humidity. 
The houses are partly and sometimes wholly made of giba 
gaba; the best are those of which the frame work, is of 
wood and the sides of gaba gaba. The branches having a 
concave and a convex side are fastened to each other by 
small pins, and make as good a wall as planks. Instead of 
a wall round the yard they also use the gaba gaba which is* 
made to rest on a low frame work or a foundation of stone, 
and is protected above by a little atap copping. The gaba 
gaba placed on a wooden frame work generally lasts from 10 
to 15 years. 
The leaves of the tree, while still green, are made into 
ataps, and serve to cover dwellings. When well laid on 
they last about 7 years. The bark of the tree furnishes a 
valuable fuel. The stalk of the leaf gives the well known 
sapu lidij like that of the coconut and gomuti. 
Jfhe hatd rind or bark of the thicker or lower side of 
the branch-stem is made into a kind of bucket called gu - 
ruru, in which the saguwero liquor is collected. From the 
extremity of the branch, while it is yet very young and green 
they prepare a kind of Jcadas which is used for the sails 
of native vessels and of orembaais , and also for making the 
thick and middling sails ealled ayia ayia. The root of the 
tree which has been cut down produces new shoots, and is 
therefore not dug out. 
We may remark finally that the Moluccas produce five 
kinds of sago trees viz. sagodhar with all its leaves depend¬ 
ing and full of thorns ; sago tuni with horizontal leaves 
and less thorny; sago molat % entirely divested of thorns ; 
sago makanaru , with leaves somewhat bent down ; and sago 
rottan, like the last, but with a stem much higher than the 
other kinds. 
Forrest and his crew, during the voyage in the Tartar 
Galley which he has so graphically described, lived much on 
sago, and his experiences as an actual sago eater in the 
Moluccas, enable him to speak with all the knowledge and 
discretion of a farinaceous epicure. The following remarks 
by him will therefore complete our notices of sago in the 
One tree will produce from two to four hundred weight of 
* Valintyn. 
