The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

XXV.] CERAM, GORAM, AND THE MATABELLO ISLANDS. 291leaving a skin not more than half an inch in thickness. Thismaterial is carried away (in baskets made of the slieathingbases of the leaves) to tlie nearest water, where a wasliingmachineis put up, which is composed almost entirely of thesago tree itself. The large sheathing bases of the leaves formthe troughs, and the fibi'ous covering fi-om the leaf-stalks of theyoung cocoa-nut the strainer. Water is poured on the mass ofpith, which is kneaded and pressed against the strainer till thestarch is all dissolved and has passed through, when the fibrousrefuse is thrown away, and a fresh basketful put in its place.The water charged with sago starch passes on to a trougji, witha depression in the centre, where the sediment is deposited, thesurplus water trickling off by a shallow outlet. When thetrough is nearly full, the mass of starch, which has a slightreddish tinge, is made into cylinders of about tliirty pounds'weight, and neatly covered with sago leaves, and in this stateis sold as raw sago.Boiled with water this forms a thick glutinous mass, with arather astringent taste, and is eaten with salt, limes, and chillies.Sago-bread is made in large quantities, by baking it into cakesin a small clay oven containingsix or eight slits side by side,each about three-quarters ofan inch wide, and six or eightinches square. The raw sago isbroken up, dried in the sun,powdered, and finely sifted.The oven is heated over a clearfire of embers, and is lightlyfilled with the sago-jDowder.The ojienings are then covered^ago oven.with a flat piece of sago bark,and in about five minutes the cakes are turned out sufficientlybaked. The hot cakes are very nice with butter, and whenmade w4th the addition of a little sugar and grated cocoa-nutare quite a delicacy. They are soft, and something like cornflourcakes, but have a slight characteristic flavour which is lostin the refined sago we use in this country. When not wantedfor immediate use, they are dried for several days in the sun,and tied up in bundles of twenty. They will then keep foryears ; they are very hard, and very rough and dry, but thepeople are used to them from infancy, and little children may beseen gnawing at them as contentedly as ours wdth their breadand-butter.If dipped in water and then toasted, they becomealmost as good as when fresh baked ; and thus treated they weremy daily substitute for bread with my coflee. Soaked andboiled they make a very good pudding or vegetable, and servedwell to economize our rice, which is sometimes difficult to get sofar east.It is truly an exti-aordinary sight to witness a whole tree-U 2