Page 234 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

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READING LESSONS. 233
and oil; it a ords them a strong spirit, vinegar, and barm; timber to build their huts, and thatch to cover them. The shell is a use l article among their household vessels, and the coarse brous husk surrounding it, as well as the bark itself, is made into cloth and cordage. Of the wood of the cocoa-nut­ tree, sewed together with a yarn spun from the bark, a vessel is constructed; of the same wood the mast is rmed; of the bark and brous covering of the shell, the sails are woven; so that om the di erent parts of this valuable vegetable, the whole vessel, as well as the habitations of the natives of the cocoa­ nut islands, are completed. There is a brous sub­ stance in the leaves of the cabbage-tree, which is sometimes spun like hemp into di erent kinds of cordage. The sockets and grooves, rmed by the broad part of the otstalks of the leaves, are used by the negroes as cradles r their children. The trunks, when cleared of the pith, serve as water-pipes and gut­ ters, and of the pith a kind of sago is manu ctured.
2. The magney or mati-tree affords to the natives of New Spain, where it grows copiously, water, wine, oil, vinegar, honey, syrup, thread, needles, &c. In short, there are no less than nineteen services, which this tree, though small, yields to the inhabitants. The leaves serve r covei'ing their houses; out of its roots strong and thick ropes are made; and a ne yarn may be spun out of the bres of the leaves, which, being converted into cloth, serves r the pur­ pose of clothing. The bark of thep wpaw-tree is manu ctured by the In ans into cordage. The
leaves are used as soap, and the stem is converted into water-pipes. It is said that a small quantity of the juice, when rubbed upon butcher's meat, renders
it tender, without hurting its quality.