Stainino- the Gourd. 



145 



given: my notes from the makers of liuewai pawehe of half a century ago give it a^ 

 follows: The portion to be left of the natural color of the gourd was covered with a var. 

 nish or glaze impervious to water, and the parts to be colored black were then scraped 

 bare and the vessel immersed for a season in the mud of a kalo pond : a sort of etching 



process. I confess on examining 

 some of the fine specimens in this 

 IMuseum I do not see how this 

 proceeding could produce such re- 

 sults, and I will quote from Rev. 

 William Ellis:" 



When the calabash is growu to its 

 full size, tliey empty it in the usual man- 

 ner, by placing it in the sun till the 

 inside is decayed, and may be shaken 

 out. The shell, which remains entire, 

 except the small perforation made at the 

 stalk for the purpose of discharging its 

 contents, and serving as a mouth to the 

 vessel, is, when the calabash is large, 

 sometimes half an inch thick. In order 

 to stain it, they mix several bruised 

 herbs, principally the stalks and leaves 

 of the arum, and a quantity of dark fer- 

 ruginous earth, with water, and fill the 

 vessel with it. They then draw with a 

 piece of hard wood or stone on the out- 

 side of the calabash whatever figures 

 they wish to ornament it with. These 

 are various being either rhomboids, 

 stars, circles, or wave and straight lines, 

 in separate sections, or crossing each 

 other at right angles, generally marked 

 with a great degree of accuracy and 

 ta.ste. After this coloring matter has 

 remained three or four days in the cala- 

 bashes, they are put into a native oven"^ and baked. When they are taken out, all the parts previ- 

 ously marked appear beautifully brown or black, while those places where the skin has not been 

 broken, retain their natural bright yellow colour. The dye is now emptied out, and the calabash 

 dried in the sun ; the whole of the outside appears perfectly smooth and shining, while the colours 

 imparted by the above process remain indelible. 



"Tour of Hawaii, second edition, p. 376. 



''This imu or oven consists of an excavation in the ground lined and generally floored also with stones. .\ fire 

 is kept up in this until the stones are very hot, when the articles to be cooked are put in the place of the fire, wrapped 

 in ki leaves, and the coals and hot stones piled about the deposit which is then covered with earth and mats and left 

 for some time. The result, if the oven is properly timed, is excellent. New Englanders will recognize the method 

 of their clam-bake, which was learned from the .\merind. 



Memoirs B. P. B. Museum. Vol. II, No. 3.— 10. L329J 



FIG. 123. GOURD AW.\ STR.VINER. 



