3-070-681 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches in Madagascar: native distilling spirit from sugar-cane, 1881. Engraving from a sketch by Staff-Surgeon J. N. Stone, R.N. representing '...a native still; the apparatus and process are very simple. A portion of the trunk of a tree is hollowed out on one side, and this trough is traversed longitudinally by an old gun-barrel, the muzzle and breech of which protrude at each end: the muzzle enters into a pot, under which is a fire; and the vapour produced is condensed in its passage through the gun-barrel, which is surrounded by cold water contained in the trough. The resulting spirit is received into a bottle, attached to a breech. Several of these apparatus are usually placed in a row, on a convenient slope near the town, perhaps under the shade of a spreading tree. The process is attended by an elderly woman, who keeps the fires going, and supplies the sugar-cane from which the spirit is distilled'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.