156 COOK AND cook: the maho or mahagua 



bark cloth was a much more highly developed art among the 

 Polynesians than in America. The maho cordage was used 

 especially for making canoes, its strength and durability not 

 being affected by exposure to water. The plant was grown 

 regularly from cuttings, and in some parts of the East Indies a 

 condition of seedlessness appears to have been reached, as with 

 other species that have been subject to vegetative propagation 

 for long periods. 



In some of the islands the maho grows spontaneously, and 

 covers large areas that have been abandoned after previous 

 cultivation. As a result of extensive studies of plant dispersal 

 in the Pacific islands, Guppy classes the maho with the candle- 

 nut as introduced trees which have replaced native forest vege- 

 tation. Low banks of tidal rivers are the favorite habitat. 

 Though many botanists have written of the maho as a cosmo- 

 politan seashore plant, its wide dissemination may be due largely 

 to human agency, as with the coconut palm. The distribution 

 in both cases extends over tropical America and the Polynesian 

 area, including the islands and shores of the Pacific and Indian 

 oceans. 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE NAME IN AMERICA 



The name maho, with many variations, is widely distributed in 

 tropical America, and is applied locally to many other plants. 

 The form usually employed in Spanish books is majagua or 

 mahagua, in French mahaut, mahoe, or mahoii. In Ecuador the 

 maho is said to be called jagua. A reduplicated form, mahou- 

 mahou, is listed by Martins for the Galibi Indians of Brazil, but 

 the simple form mahu is also mentioned in relation to Mahu as a 

 Tupi place name on the Upper Amazon {Ethnographie, 512). 

 How far the plant extends up the Amazon is not known. No 

 definitely recognizable equivalent has been recorded in the 

 Quichua language of Peru, but ahua, meaning '' string" or 

 "thread," ahuani to weave, ahuac a weaver, and many other 

 terms of textile implication are of possible interest for comparison 

 with Hawaiian words of similar sound and meaning. 



