Sagwire

One of theſe leaves, or rather branches, is cut off, and the ſagwire trickles out of it by drops, which are caught in a bamboo, hung under it for that purpoſe, and when this is full, the contents are drawn off, by a tap at the bottom.

Their food is rice, fish, and pisang, and their drink water; though they likewise have sagwire, or palm wine.

On the fruit of this tree the natives in a great measure live, and regale themselves with its inebriating juice, as also on sagwire, a very strong species of palm wine.

The Australians, although unacquainted with true spirituous liquors, knew how to obtain a similar effect by chewing the twigs of the pituri bush. The Papuans of New Guinea in their intoxicating sagwire, prepared from the sap of the palm, illustrate the transition to a fluid medium for the same purpose.

One of the most useful and abundant of all the palms is the Sagwire or Gomuti (Borassus gomutus).