Although in the sago industry both sexes have well defined duties.

Along the edge of the cogon lands are many large _buri_ palms,[65] from
which a starch commercially known as sago is secured. The men cut down a
tree close to its roots and remove the hard outer bark, thus exposing
the soft fibrous interior (Plate LIII); then a section of bamboo is bent
so as to resemble an adze[sic], and with this the men loosen or break up
the soft interior portion of the trunk. This is removed to a near-by
stream, and is placed in a bark vat into which water is led by means of
bamboo tubes. Here a woman works it with her hands until the starch
grains are separated from the fibrous matter. As the water drains slowly
out the fine starch is carried with it into a coarse cloth sieve, which
retains all the larger matter but allows the starch to be carried into
another bark vat below. Fresh water passes slowly through this lower
vat, removing the bitter sap from the flour, which is deposited on the
bottom of the vat. From time to time this is scraped up and placed in
baskets where it is kept until needed. The flour, while rather
tasteless, is nutritious and in years of drought is the chief source of
food supply.

[65] _Corypha umbraculifera_.

Preparation of the meals, care of the children, basket and mat making,
weaving and decoration of clothing, take up most of the time of the
women when they are not engaged in the cultivation of the fields or in
search of forest products.

The hardest work in the fields falls to the men; they also strip the
hemp needed in weaving, while a few of them are skilled workers in brass
and copper and turn out bells and other ornaments not at all inferior to