The history of Sumatra : $b Containing an account of the government, laws, customs and manners of the native inhabitantsMarsden, William
History
The history of Sumatra : $b Containing an account of the government, laws, customs and manners of the native inhabitants
Marsden, William
Natural history -- Indonesia -- Sumatra; Sumatra (Indonesia)
They are ignorant of the use of the saw, excepting where we have
introduced it among them. Trees are felled by chopping at the stems, and
in procuring boards they are confined to those the direction of whose
grain or other qualities admit of their being easily split asunder. In
this respect the species called maranti and marakuli have the preference.
The tree, being stripped of its branches and its bark, is cut to the
length required, and by the help of wedges split into boards. These being
of irregular thickness are usually dubbed upon the spot. The tool used
for this purpose is the rembe, a kind of adze. Most of their smaller
work, and particularly on the bamboo, is performed with the papatil,
which resembles in shape as much as in name the patupatu of the New
Zealanders, but has the vast superiority of being made of iron. The
blade, which is fastened to the handle with a nice and curious kind of
rattan-work, is so contrived as to turn in it, and by that means can be
employed either as an adze or small hatchet. Their houses are generally
built with the assistance of this simple instrument alone. The billiong
is no other than a large papatil, with a handle of two or three feet in
length, turning, like that, in its socket.
CEMENTS.
The chief cement they employ for small work is the curd of buffalo-milk,
called prakat. It is to be observed that butter is made (for the use of
Europeans only; the words used by the Malays, for butter and cheese,
monteiga and queijo, being pure Portuguese) not as with us, by churning,
but by letting the milk stand till the butter forms of itself on the top.
It is then taken off with a spoon, stirred about with the same in a flat
vessel, and well washed in two or three waters. The thick sour milk left
at the bottom, when the butter or cream is removed, is the curd here
meant. This must be well squeezed, formed into cakes, and left to dry,
when it will grow nearly as hard as flint. For use you must scrape some
of it off, mix it with quick lime, and moisten it with milk. I think
there is no stronger cement in the world, and it is found to hold,
particularly in a hot and damp climate, much better than glue; proving
also effectual in mending chinaware. The viscous juice of the saga-pea
(abrus) is likewise used in the country as a cement.
INK.
Ink is made by mixing lamp-black with the white of egg. To procure the
former they suspend over a burning lamp an earthen pot, the bottom of
which is moistened, in order to make the soot adhere to it.
DESIGNING.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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