Note 499 — PRIMO VIAGGIO INTORNO AL MONDO

MS. 5,650 adds: “and bruise.” There are supposed to be five palms that produce the product called sago, which is probably the word for the meal, as each of the palms has its own specific name. The most frequently cultivated are the râmbiya, Sagus Konigii or Metroxylon sago, and the bamban or Sagus lævis. The shell of each species is very thin, and the yield of sago very abundant, as it comprises all the pith of the tree. Sago trees grow throughout the Malayan archipelago and Philippines as far as Mindanao. They require a boggy ground and propagate by lateral shoots, as well as by seeds, so that a sago plantation is perpetual. Three trees will yield more nutritive matter than an acre of wheat, and six trees more than an acre of potatoes. Sago is the sole bread of the Moluccas and New Guinea and its neighboring islands, but of no other part of the Archipelago. In the Malay countries it is only the food of the wild tribes, and is hardly used by the Malays themselves. Only the poorer classes in Mindanao use it, while in other islands, such as Java, where rice is abundant, it is not used at all. It is the lowest kind of farinaceous food. The pearl sago of commerce was introduced by the Chinese. The method of preparation is essentially that described by Pigafetta. See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, pp. 371, 372; and Official Handbook of Philippines (Manila, 1903), pp. 115, 116.