Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/81

 Among the Palms. I7

liu,” “thatch materials,” and are used to thatch boats, mat-sheds, booths, and temporary structures of various kinds, also to make mats, cushions, rain-coats, ete. When the trees reach the age of thirty or forty years, and thence upwards to several hundreds, they produce very large fans, sometimes five feet long and three feet broad. These are used in the place of hats and umbrellas as protection against both heat and rain, Only old trees produce nuts, which appear without flowers (?), in shape like small white olives. One tree will yield from two to three thousand nuts in one season.

The second step is the process of manufacturing the leaves into fans. This process involves several stages. The leaves are first brought in green from the fields, carried in bundles on their shoulders, or sent by quantities in boats. They are then dried or cured by spreading them out in the sun by day, and heaping them up in stacks at night, repeating this process daily until they are thoroughly dried. They are then piled up in stacks like hay until needed in the manufactory. Each leaf is trimmed to the proper shape, the ends going to make material for rain-coats or thatch. After this they pass through a course of firing over sulphur fumes, by which they are rendered very smooth and white. Then comes the dressing-off process. The stems are trimmed and polished, or cut off entirely, as may be desired, and they are then given out to women to hem, These women work very cheaply, and may be seen in almost every street, sitting by the doors of their houses stitching at the fanz, or carrying them to and from the shops. Al- though they often receive but a mere pittance of two or