AKT.30 DESIGN AREAS IN OCEANIA KRIEGEB 13 



are painted by hand on the cloths, the fruit of the pandanus tree, 

 which makes an excellent paintbrush, being used for the purpose. 



The Samoan bark cloth, or tapa, is not so fine as that of Hawaii 

 and other parts of Polynesia. It is coarse and for the most part 

 crudely decorated. It is manufactured from the u'a, or paper mul- 

 berry {Brousso7ietia papyrlfera), a plant propagated by suckers 

 and cultivated sparingly. 



The bark of the slender sapling is removed and prepared by 

 soaking, peeling, and macerating. The strips are then beaten with 

 the square tapa mallet or beater into long strips. The holes and 

 thin places are filled or thickened by strips attached by paste made 

 from masoa, then the fabric is ready for painting. 



The patterns are placed on the tapa by blocks of two kinds. One 

 has a raised design cut out of solid wood ; the other is composed of 

 a frame with the ribs and fibers of the pandanus and the coconut 

 arranged in a pattern. Striping with brushes and freehand paint- 

 ing are also practiced. 



The colors used are yellow from the fruits of the loa, red or black 

 from the sap of the hibiscus, bluish gray from the juice of the stem 

 of the soa'a, and dark yellow or dark red when slaked lime is added 

 to the juice of the nonu, and brown when it is added to the juice 

 of togo or paui. 



The dry and bleached tapa is laid over the pattern block or 

 frame, its edges weighted down with stones, the dry color sprinkled 

 over it and rubbed with a bit of tapa so that the raised design alone 

 retains the color. This is repeated for each field of the design, 

 sometimes a field being gone over with two colors to blend, and 

 then, the patterns having been outlined in colors, they are fixed with 

 the juice of the o'a. 



Tapa is still worn at times, especially by chiefs and taupos 

 (village virgins), and is often seen in the villages remote from the 

 trading centers. 



Previous to the introduction of American and European trader's 

 goods, such as calico and other cotton prints, the Samoans sewed to- 

 gether an apron from ti leaves {Dracaena ter^ninalis) . The man 

 had a small apron about a foot square and the women had theirs 

 made from longer ti leaves, reaching from the waist down below the 

 knees and made wide so as to form a girdle all around. 



Leaf girdles (titi) now appear only in the siva siva, and are 

 made from the colored varieties of the ti. The leaves are gathered 

 fresh, split lengthwise, the midrib removed, and the pieces strung 

 in one or more rows on the midrib of a banana leaf. For a dance 

 they are considered most ornamental when made to shine with coco- 



