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.

This material is carried away (in baskets made of the sheathing bases of the leaves) to the nearest water, where a washing-machine is put up, which is composed almost entirely of the saga tree itself.

The large sheathing bases of the leaves form the troughs, and the fibrous covering from the leaf-stalks of the young cocoa-nut the strainer.