The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-05

bamboo wicker-work, as open or as close
as you please. admitting air, but keeping
out lght and weather. A mat for sleeping
IS obtained from the same source Ii
chalrs ana tables are needed, specimens
imported here Show how simply, and yet
now beautifully, they can be made A
section made between two Joints of a
large stem will afford a water-bucket
smaller one makes a good cooking-ves-
sci IN which to boil the rice and other
1000. Another provides a bottle or
jar Tor the preservation of the supplies
such as honey, sugar. salt and vinegar
Inc Water-spring may be at some dis
lance up the hillside. The householder
can easily convey the water to the house /;
Tor the bamboo, with the septa at the
JOINTS cut away, makes excellent water
pipes, and, by carefully selecting the
proper sizes, fitting is easy.
Is something to eat wanted, better than
young shoots and seeds? Two pieces
pound carefully together, to give greater
strength, form a bow; and some long
slender shoots are the arrows. If a larger
weapon is needed, a few straight stems
OF suitable size, with one end cut like a
quill pen, will give a bundle of spears,
not to be despised by naked foe. Should
barter have enriched our Dyak with a
KNIFE made by some foreign cutler, a
length of bamboo is all he needs for a
sheath.
When in hunting or travelling a river
has to be crossed, a few bamboos near at
hand form the bridge. A tree is selected
at the crossing place, and from it a large
stem is suspended and pushed across
Then it is supported by others stuck in
the ground and meeting diagonaIly under
meath that which is to be the roadway
hand-rail of a long, thin specimen is
added, and over such a slight but Won
derfully strong suspension bridge men and
women, heavily laden will run rapidly.
Precipices are passed round in the same
way, the path being literally suspended
from the face of the cliff by means of the
plant rods. Dyaks go into the most out
of-the-Way places by means of their friend
the bamboo.
1t would take much more space than is
at my disposal to tell of all the wonderful
ways in which the bamboo is used. Lad
deTS are made up trees 100 feet high 10
the first branch, by driving pegs of the
split wood into the trunk, and then fas-
tening slender rods to the projecting ends
thus building as one ascends a sort of
fire escape" arrangement. A section
makes a handy box for the materials for
"betel-chewing." Another with a long
tube and a pipe-head, all of the same
wood, forms the comfortable "hubble-bub-
ble,' the prototype of the "hookah." A
short plant staff makes a yoke, by which
weights are borne on the shoulders; a
longer one supports the palanqiun in
which the bearers rapidly convey the
traveller from place to place; and a longer
one still, in the hands Of body of coolies,
will raise incredible masses almost as well
as a derrick Rats, masts and even rig
sing are made from the same source
Musical instruments, especially a curious
kind of ''jews-harp," form another manu-
facture. Pulp for paper IS prepared; and
even the pens and the paint brushes are
made from the same plant.
Assuredly the bamboo does very nearly
deserve the name of "a universal pro-
WIDER"