Kapa Beating. 



127 



"Wait until the black kapa covers me and my kingdom shall be yonrs." I cannot here 

 follow up the manufaAure of kapa, which will require a chapter by itself,^' but the 

 chief implements used in this most important work were a part of the furniture of 

 every important house, and must be briefly described and illustrated here. 



No loom nor complicated machinery was needed for the simple process by which 

 the fibres of bark were converted into sheets of varying size and consistency. A log 



of some hard wood, usually of 

 kaivan or kolca wood, was cut to 

 a length of about six feet, hewn 

 to a flat surface about three 

 inches wide at top, cut away 

 slightly at either end and 

 hollowed out longitudinally 

 underneath. This anvil, laati 

 kill kapa or kua kapa., was sup- 

 ported on two stones. Fig. 104. 

 A variet}' of hand clubs, some 

 round {/lo/ioa) for the first beat- 

 ing, or square ( I'c kiikii, Fig. 103) 

 for the finishing, and a few cala- 

 bashes to hold water or some 

 mucilaginous liquid, were all the 

 tools needed to make what 

 was probably called from the 

 means used in its fabrication 

 Kapa = ka pa^ the beaten. 



In olden time the kapa 

 beating was done in one of 

 the six houses (hale kua) of 

 a well-to-do Hawaiian, but in later times I have usually seen the old women establish 

 their kiia kuku under some tree near a brook or kalo patch. The patterns on the 

 beaters were various and these determined the "water mark" on the kapa : the form of 

 the beater and some of the patterns are shown in Fig. 103. These beaters are perhaps 

 the most common Hawaiian article in museums, and they must have been verj^ abund- 

 ant, as after their original use had become obsolete, scores were used up in trying to 



"■'I more wiUingly pass over the very important work of kapa making withoiit a complete description because 

 a rather lengthj- memoir devoted to that manufacture, in which the Hawaiians excelled, is in preparation and will 

 be fully illustrated with photographs and colored plates. 



[311] 



FIG. 103. KAPA BEATERS. 



