海底兩萬里 第273期 第21章 在陸地上的兩天(5)

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We were overloaded when we arrived at the skiff. However, Ned Land still found these provisions inadequate. But fortune smiled on him. Just as we were boarding, he spotted several trees twenty-five to thirty feet high, belonging to the palm species. As valuable as the artocarpus, these trees are justly ranked among the most useful produce in Malaysia.

當(dāng)我們到了小艇，我們帶回的東西實(shí)在太多了?？墒悄岬?，蘭覺得他的食物還不夠。算他走運(yùn)，他又得了些東西。在我們上小艇的時(shí)候，他看見好幾棵樹，高二十五英尺至三十英尺，屬于棕?cái)R一類。

They were sago palms, vegetation that grows without being cultivated; like mulberry trees, they reproduce by means of shoots and seeds.

這些樹跟面包樹一樣有用，一樣寶貴，正是馬來亞地方最有用的產(chǎn)物之一。這是西米樹，是不用種植就生長起來的植物，像桑樹那樣，由于自己的嫩枝和種子，不需人工，自然繁殖滋長。

Ned Land knew how to handle these trees. Taking his ax and wielding it with great vigor, he soon stretched out on the ground two or three sago palms, whose maturity was revealed by the white dust sprinkled over their palm fronds.

尼德·蘭知道對付這些樹的方法。他拿出斧子，揮動(dòng)起來,不久就把兩三棵西米樹砍倒在地下，從灑在葉上的白粉屑來看，這幾棵樹是很成熟了。

I watched him more as a naturalist than as a man in hunger. He began by removing from each trunk an inch-thick strip of bark that covered a network of long, hopelessly tangled fibers that were puttied with a sort of gummy flour. This flour was the starch-like sago, an edible substance chiefly consumed by the Melanesian peoples.

我看著他砍樹，與其說是拿餓肚人的眼光看，不如說是拿生物學(xué)家的眼光看。他把每一根樹干剝?nèi)ヒ粚雍褚挥⒋绲谋砥?，表皮下面是纏繞作一團(tuán)的結(jié)子所組成的長長纖維網(wǎng)，上面就粘著膠質(zhì)護(hù)膜般的細(xì)粉。這粉就是西米，就是作為美拉尼西亞居民糧食的主要食物。

For the time being, Ned Land was content to chop these trunks into pieces, as if he were making firewood; later he would extract the flour by sifting it through cloth to separate it from its fibrous ligaments, let it dry out in the sun, and leave it to harden inside molds.

尼德·蘭此刻只是把樹干砍成片，像他砍那要燒的劈柴一般，準(zhǔn)備將來提取樹干上的粉，讓粉通過一塊薄布，使它跟纖維絲分開，把它晾在太陽下，讓水汽干了，然后把它放在模中，讓它凝固起來。