SAGO, 
295 
flour. I have often found large pieces of the sago tree on the 
sea shore, drifts from other countries The sago thus steeped 
in the salt water, had always a sour disagreeable smell; and 
in this state, I dare say, the wild hogs would not taste it. 
The leaf of the sago tree makes the best covering for houses, 
of all the palm*' kind : it will last seven years. Coverings 
of the nipa’f* or common attop, such as they use on the 
south west cotist of Sumatra, will not last half the time. 
When sago trees are cut down, fresh ones sprout up from 
the roots. 
We seldom or never see sago in Europe, but in a granu¬ 
lated state. To bring it into this state from the flour, it 
must be first moistened, and passed through a sieve into an 
iron pot (very shallow) held over a fire, which enables it to 
assume a globular form. 
Thus, our grained sago is half baked, and will keep long. 
The pulp or powder, of which this is made, will also keep 
long, if preserved from the air ; but, if exposed, it presently 
turns sour. 
The Papua oven, for this flour, is made of earthen ware. 
It is generally nine inches square, and about four deep : it 
is divided into two equal parts, by a partition parallel to 
its sides. Each of those parts is subdivided into eight or 
nine, about an inch broad; so the whole contains two rows 
of cells, about eight or nine in a row. When the cell is 
broad, the sago cake is not likely to be well baked- I 
think the best sized cell is such as would contain an ordinary 
octavo volume upon it’s edge. When they are of such a 
size, the cakes will be properly baked, in the following 
manner : 
The oven is supposed to have at its bottom, a round han¬ 
dle, by which the baker turns the cells downward upon the 
fire. When sufficiently heated, it is turned with the mouths 
of the cells up ; and then rests upon the handle (which is 
now become the bottom) as on a stand. 
When the oven is heating, the baker is supposed to have 
prepared his flour, by breaking the lumps small, moistening 
it with water, if too dry, and passing it once or twice through 
a sieve, at the same time rejecting any parts that look black 
or smell sour. This done, he fills the cells with the flour, lays 
a bit of clean leaf over, and with his finger presses the flour 
down into the cell, then covers all up with leaves, and puts a 
* Those trees of the palm kind, have all a heart like what is called the cab- 
basie tree ; even the head of the common ratan has a small cabbage, of which 
I have eat. 
t The ordinary leaf for covering so called. 
