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ARTS AND MANUFACTURES
Thus far with those arts that are strictly pro-fessional, and are practised by men; there aresome others not professional, which are alsoexercised by men, viz. surgical operations,erecting fortifications, rope-making, and makingbows and arrows, clubs and spears: the firsthas been treated of in Chap. 21, and for the se-cond, see Yol. I. p. 90.
Rope-making. There are two kinds of rope,one made of the husk of the cocoa-nut, whichis the superior sort, and the other of the innerbark of the jots. Although these ropes aremade entirely by hand, yet even those of con-siderable circumference are laid with the great-est regularity: they are very elastic, and thestrength of them is universally known. Thehusk of the cocoa-nut is first made intoplait, which is then twisted into strands, andof these the rope is made. The bark of thefmv is not first made into plait, but at onceinto strands.
Bows and arrows. The bows are generallymade of the wood of the mangrove, thoughsome few of the casuarina wood : the string ismade of the inner bark of a tree they call olon-gk, and is exceedingly strong. The arrows aremade of reed, headed with casuarina wood :some of these heads have three or four rows ofbarbs, and, to make them more formidable, are