"Imperfections in the cloth are remedied by the principal 

 women in the group, who trim edges and apply patches with the 

 use of a paste made of the root of arrowroot (Chaitea tacca) 



[ Tacca pmnatifida]." 



Banks proceeds to the Tahitian method of dyeing: "They use 

 principally two colors, red and yellow. . . .They also on some 

 occasions dye the cloth brown or black, but so seldom that I had 

 no opportunity. . . of seeing the method, or of learning the mate- 

 rials they make use of To begin with the red [It] is made 



by the admixture of the juices of two vegetables neither of which 



. . . have [sic] the least tendency to the color of red The plants 



are Ficus tinctoria and Cordia Sebestena. . . the fruits of the first, 

 and the leaves of the second, are used in the following manner: 



"The fruit . . . produces, by breaking off the stalk close to it, one 

 drop of milky liquor This liquor the women collect. . .shak- 

 ing the drop. . .into a small quantity of coconut water When 



the liquor is ready, the leaves are . . . well wetted in it, they are then 

 laid upon a plantain leaf, and the women . . . turn and shake them 

 about; afterwards. . .to squeeze them. . .and in about five min- 

 utes the color begins to appear on the veins of the . . . leaves, and in 

 ten or a little more, all is . . . ready for straining .... For straining 

 they have a larger quantity of the fibers of a kind of Cyperus grass 

 (C. stupeus) In this grass they envelop the leaves and. . .ex- 

 press the dye. [They keep the grass to use as a brush to lay the 

 color on the cloth]. The receptacle for the liquid dye is always a 

 plantain leaf. In laying the dye upon the cloth they . . . spread the 

 outside of it with a thin coat of dye." 



Banks mentions several other reds which are produced by 



*fi 



la t if i 



...is made of the bark of the root of a shrub (Morinda 

 umbellata). This they scrape into water and after it has soaked 

 . . .strain the water and dip the cloth into it." 



In a footnote, Brigham expresses surprise that Banks does not 

 mention the use of fern leaves as stamps, citing red leaves on yellow 

 grounds as an example. In the description quoted, Banks does not 

 describe designs. Kooijman (1972) notes the use of fern leaves as 

 especially characteristic of Tahitian bark cloth decoration. 



59 



