p. 11 | WHAT IS RATTAN?

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 17, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 16.

WHAT IS RATTAN?

Every one knows the pretty, light, and graceful chairs and other articles of furniture made from rattan, but every one does not know that the extremely tough and flexible wood called rattan is of the climbing palm tree. This curious climber, which is more of a vine than a tree, is one of the singular characteristics of forest growth in the Celebes and other Malayan countries. Starting with a trunk a little thicker than a man's arm, it winds through the forest, now wrapping a tall tree in its folds like some gigantic snake, and then descending again to the earth and trailing along in snake-like curves, until it can find some other stately tree to fasten and climb upon, in its pursuit of light and air. The forest is so thick and jungle-like that it seems impossible to follow the course of any one of these serpent-climbers, but there is little doubt that at the last the successful aspirant, which stooped and cringed so long below, will be found shooting up like a flag-staff a dozen feet or more above the tree which had helped it to rise.

A use of the rattan which is unknown to those who have not seen it in its native forest, is as a water carrier. The thirsty traveler has at all times a tumbler of cool, refreshing water at his command by cutting off six or eight feet of rattan and putting one of the several ends to his mouth, or holding it over a dish to catch the water.