equently sprinkled with sea-water, to prevent its original tint
turning black instead of yellow. In addition to this net-work, the
nutmeg is covered with a thin, soft rind. The nutmeg itself is also
dried, then smoke-dried a little, and afterwards, to prevent its
turning mouldy, dipped several times in sea-water, containing a weak
solution of lime.

The clove-tree is somewhat smaller, and cannot boast of such
luxuriant foliage, or such fine large leaves as the nutmeg-tree.
The cloves are the buds of the tree gathered before they have had
time to blossom. They are first smoked, and then laid for a short
time in the sun.

Another kind of spice is the areca-nut, which hangs under the crown
of the palm of the same name, in groups containing from ten to
twenty nuts each. It is somewhat larger than a nutmeg, and its
outer shell is of so bright a colour, that it resembles the gilt
nuts which are hung upon the Christmas-trees in Germany. The kernel
is almost the same colour as the nutmeg, but it has no net-work: it
is dried in the shade.

The Chinese and natives of the place chew this nut with betel-leaf
and calcined mussel-shells. They strew the leaf with a small
quantity of the mussel-powder, to which they add a very small piece
of the nut, and make the whole into a little packet, which they put
into their mouth. When they chew tobacco at the same time, the
saliva becomes as red as blood, and their mouths, when open, look
like little furnaces, especially if, as is frequently the case with
the Chinese, the person has his teeth dyed and filed. The first
time I saw a case of the kind I was very frightened: I thought the
poor fellow had sustained some serious injury, and that his mouth
was full of blood.

I also visited a sago manufactory. The unprepared sago is imported
from the neighbouring island of Borromeo, and consists of the pith
of a short, thick kind of palm. The tree is cut down when it is
seven years old, split up from top to bottom, and the pith, of which
there is always a large quantity, extracted; it is then freed from
the fibres, pressed in large frames, and dried at the fire or in the
sun. At this period it has still a yellowish tinge. The following
is the manner in which it is grained: The meal or pith is steeped
in water for several days, until it is completely blanched; it is
then once more dried by the fire or in the sun, and passed under a
large wooden roller, and through a hair sieve. W