and, when split, its pieces are of extraordinary pliability and elasticity.  To the gravelly soil on which it grows it owes its durability, and its firm, even, and always clean surface, the brilliancy and color of which improve by use. [Convenience.] And finally, it is a great thing for a population with such limited means of conveyance that the bamboo is to be found in such abundance in all kinds of localities and of all dimensions, from a few millimeters to ten or fifteen centimeters in diameter, even sometimes to twice this amount; and that, on account of its unsurpassed floating power, it is pre-eminently fitted for locomotion in a country poor in roads but rich in watercourses.  A blow with a bolo is generally enough to cut down a strong stem. [Usefulness.] If the thin joints are taken away, hollow stems of different thicknesses can be slid into one another like the parts of a telescope.  From bamboos split in half, gutters, troughs, and roofing tiles can be made.  Split into several slats, which can be again divided into small strips and fibers for the manufacture of baskets, ropes, mats, and fine plaiting work, they can be made into frames and stands.  Two cuts in the same place make a round hole through which a stem of corresponding diameter can be firmly introduced.  If a similar opening is made in a second upright, the horizontal stem can be run through both.  Gates, closing perpendicularly or horizontally in frames moving without friction on a perpendicular or horizontal axis, can be made in this way.

Two deep cuts give an angular shape to the stem; and when its two sides are wide enough apart to admit of a cross-stem being placed between them, they can be employed as roof-ridges or for the framework of tables and chairs; a quantity of flat split pieces of bamboo being fastened on top of them with chair-cane.  These split pieces then form the seats of the chairs and the tops of the tables, instead of the boards and large bamboo laths used at other times.  It is equally easy to make an oblong opening in a large bamboo in which to fit the laths of a stand.

A couple of cuts are almost enough to make a fork, a pair of tongs or a hook.

If one makes a hole as big as the end of one’s finger in a large bamboo close under a joint, one obtains by fastening a small piece of cloth to the open end, a syphon or a filter.  If a piece of bamboo is split down to the joint in strips, and the strips be bound together with others horizontally interlaced, it makes a conical basket.  If the strips are cut shorter, it makes a peddler’s pack basket.  If a long handle is added, and it is filled with tar, it can be used as a signal torch.  If shallower baskets of the same dimensions, but with their bottoms cut off or punched out, are placed inside these conical ones, the two together make capital snare baskets for crabs and fish.  If a bamboo stem be cut off just below the joint, and its lower edge be split up into a cogged rim, it makes, when the partition of the joint is punched out, an earth-auger, a fountain-pipe, and many things of the kind.