They Put This Flour
Into Tubs Of Water, And Beat It Up With A Stick, And Then The Bran And
Other Impurities Come To The Top, Whilst The Pure Flour Sinks To The
Bottom.
The water is then thrown away, and the cleaned flour that remains
is taken and made into pasta in strips and other forms.
These Messer
Marco often partook of, and brought some with him to Venice. It resembles
barley bread and tastes much the same. The wood of this tree is like iron,
for if thrown into the water it goes straight to the bottom. It can be
split straight from end to end like a cane. When the flour has been
removed the wood remains, as has been said, three inches thick. Of this
the people make short lances, not long ones, because they are so heavy
that no one could carry or handle them if long. One end is sharpened and
charred in the fire, and when thus prepared they will pierce any armour,
and much better than iron would do." Marsden points out that this heavy
lance-wood is not that of the true Sago-palm, but of the Nibong or
Caryota urens; which does indeed give some amount of sago.
["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
leaf-stalks 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 fibres 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.... Water is poured on the mass
of pith, which is kneaded and pressed against the strainer till the starch
is all dissolved and has passed through, when the fibrous refuse is thrown
away, and a fresh basketful put in its place. The water charged with sago
starch passes on to a trough, with a depression in the centre, where the
sediment is deposited, the surplus water trickling off by a shallow outlet.
When the trough is nearly full, the mass of starch, which has a slight
reddish tinge, is made into cylinders of about thirty pounds' weight, and
neatly covered with sago leaves, and in this state is sold as raw sago.
Boiled with water this forms a thick glutinous mass, with a rather
astringent taste, and is eaten with salt, limes, and chilies. Sago-bread is
made in large quantities, by baking it into cakes in a small clay oven
containing six or eight slits side by side, each about three-quarters of an
inch wide, and six or eight inches square. The raw sago is broken up, dried
in the sun, powdered, and finely sifted.
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