inal spike of flowers, after which the tree dies. It grows in
swamps, or in swampy hollows on the rocky slopes of hills, where it
seems to thrive equally well as when exposed to the influx of salt or
brackish water. The midribs of the immense leaves form one of the most
useful articles in these lands, supplying the place of bamboo, to which
for many purposes they are superior. They are twelve or fifteen feet
long, and, when very fine, as thick in the lower part as a man's leg.
They are very light, consisting entirely of a firm pith covered with
a hard thin rind or bark. Entire houses are built of these; they form
admirable roofing-poles for thatch; split and well-supported, they do
for flooring; and when chosen of equal size, and pegged together side
by side to fill up the panels of framed wooden horses, they have a very
neat appearance, and make better walls and partitions than boards, as
they do not shrink, require no paint or varnish, and are not a quarter
the expense. When carefully split and shaved smooth they are formed into
light boards with pegs of the bark itself, and are the foundation of the
leaf-covered boxes of Goram. All the insect-boxes I used in the Moluccas
were thus made at Amboyna, and when covered with stout paper inside and
out, are strong, light, and secure the insect-pins remarkably well. The
leaflet of the sago folded and tied side by side on the smaller midribs
form the "atap" or thatch in universal use, while the product of the
trunk is the staple food of some= hundred thousands of men.

When sago is to be made, a full-grown tree is selected just before it
is going to flower. It is cut down close to the ground, the leaves and
leafstalks cleared away, and a broad strip of the bark taken off the
upper side of the trunk. This exposes the pithy matter, which is of
a rusty colour near the bottom of the tree, but higher up pure white,
about as hard as a dry apple, but with woody fibre running through it
about a quarter of an inch apart. This pith is cut or broken down into a
coarse powder by means of a tool constructed for the purpose--a club of
hard and heavy wood, having a piece of sharp quartz rock firmly imbedded
into its blunt end, and projecting about half an inch. By successive
blows of this, narrow strips of the pith are cut away, and fall down
into the cylinder formed by the bark. Proceeding steadily on, the whole
trunk is cleared out, leaving a skin not more than half an inch in
thickness. T