Uvea, Niue, the Marquesas, and some other islands. In Tonga, 

 the principal tree from which it is made is called hiapo and the 

 bark cloth is gatu. In Fiji, both tree and cloth are masi. 



Among descriptions of bark cloth, technical accounts such as 

 Emery's must take first place in terms of clarity, accuracy, and 

 dependability. Still, it is a temptation to supplement them with 

 early eyewitness accounts. Classic among such accounts is that of 

 Joseph Banks, naturalist on Captain James Cook's first voyage 

 (1768-1771). 



Brigham ( 1 976) quotes from the journal that Banks kept (scien- 

 tific names in brackets, added by Brigham). According to Banks, 

 the Tahitians made bark cloth from "the internal bark or liber of 

 three. . .trees, the Chinese paper mulberry (Morus papyri/era 

 [Broussonetia papyri/era] the breadfruit tree (Sitodium utile) 

 [Artocarpus incisa] and a tree much resembling the wild fig tree of 

 the West Indies, (Ficus prolixa). . . .Their mode of manufactur- 

 ing the bark is the same for all the sorts. . . .The bark is stripped 

 and taken to running water where, held down by stones, it is left 

 for several days. 



"The women servants go down to the river, and stripping 

 themselves, sit down in the water and scrape the pieces of bark, 

 holding them against a flat smooth board, with the shell called 

 Tiger's tongue' (Te/lina gargadia). . .until all the green bark is 

 rubbed and washed away and nothing remains but the very fine 

 fibers of the inner bark.... This bark is then spread out on 

 plantain leaves, care being taken to form layers of equal thickness, 

 and left overnight. 



"It is then taken away by the women servants, who beat it in the 

 following manner: they lay it upon a long piece of wood, one side 

 of which is very even and flat ... as many women as can work at 

 the board together begin to beat it. [They use] a baton made of the 

 hard wood, etoa {Casuarina equisetifolia). . .about a foot long 

 and square, with a handle; on each of the four faces. . .are many 

 small furrows whose width differs on each face. . . .They begin 

 with the coarsest side... and continue until the cloth, which 

 extends rapidly. . .shows by the too great thinness of the groves 

 [sic] . . . that a finer side of the beater is requisite . . . they proceed 

 to the finest side, with which they finish. 



58 



