SAGO OVEN.
"The dry powder is then washed, and strained through a coarse sieve; the water flows into a deep trough with a depression in the centre, where the sago sinks to the bottom and is secured. It is then pressed into cylinders weighing about thirty pounds each, or it is baked into cakes in a clay oven, with a series of compartments an inch wide, and six inches long and deep. The cakes will keep a long while if they are dried in the sun after baking. I have eaten sago that was said to be ten years old, and found it perfectly good."
Fred wished to know how much sago there was in a tree, and how much it costs for a man to live in the sago country.
"A single tree will produce from eight hundred to one thousand pounds of sago," was the reply, "which will support a man for a year. Two men can reduce a tree to dry powder in five days, and therefore we may say that ten days' labor will support a man for a year. The result is that in the sago country the people are indolent, and not at all prosperous; they have no incentive to work, and therefore make no effort to do anything. They wear very little clothing; and as for their houses, they have no occasion for anything more than rude huts, which can be built by a couple of men in a few hours. It has been observed by all who have visited Ceram that the inhabitants are not as well off as the people of the islands that produce rice, as the latter must work a great deal harder to support themselves, and will lose their whole crop unless they pay attention to their fields.
SUGAR-PALM OF MACASSAR.
"From Ceram I went to Macassar, where they have a palm-tree producing a sweet juice that may be made into beer, or boiled down into sugar, like the sap of a maple-tree. It is not unlike the sago-palm in general appearance, and will grow wherever it can find sufficient soil for its roots. The island is very rough and mountainous, and the variety of soil enables it to produce a great many things. I was invited to stay on the plantation of a friend who lived among the hills, and promised me a pleasant time.