corners of the beater; this could suggest a transitional form be- 

 tween the flat and the pyramidal top. 



J 



Brigham's painstaking attention to detail in his description of 

 bark cloth beaters and their use answers a natural question: why 

 did not the grooves of beaters fill up with the soft pulp of beaten 

 fibers? The fact is that they did become so clogged, and Brigham 

 illustrates an instrument formerly used in Hawaii to ream out the 

 grooves (Fig. 46, 4043 and Fig. 47). So few of these "de-cloggers" 

 have survived, however, that he adds, "it may well be supposed 

 that a sharp stick or edge of bamboo were the more common 

 cleaners." 



Of the tools and techniques associated with the making of bark 

 cloth in Polynesia, beaters are the most constant in character. 

 They may be made of any of several very hard woods (a favorite is 

 Casuahna equisetifolia). They may vary an inch or so in an 

 average length of some 17 inches (40 cm). The four sides of the 

 beating end may be provided with varying numbers of grooves, 

 spaced closely or widely apart. Beating end and/ or handle may 

 flare somewhat. There are exceptions: in ancient times, some 

 beaters were club-shaped, and it is reported that a very occasional 

 three-sided beating end has appeared. All in all, however, a beater 



fo 



be. 



Because the beater is the essential agent in the transformation 

 of the inner bark of certain trees into bark cloth, it is an ideal point 

 of departure for a summary of bark cloth as a distinguishing trait 

 of the material culture of Polynesia past and, to some degree, 

 present. Bark cloth is known in the lingua franca of the South 

 Pacific as tapa. The etymology of the word (spelled kapa but 

 pronounced tapa in Hawaii) is ka (the) and pa (beaten or the 

 beaten thing). Emery (1966) in her description, prefaces bark 

 cloth with "pounded." Bark cloth has many local names in Oce- 

 ania, depending on the islands of its manufacture (e.g. siapo, 

 Samoa; masi, Fiji; ngatu, Tonga; ahu, Tahiti). In some cases, 

 both the source tree and the cloth have the same name. In Polyne- 

 sia, the three trees most utilized are Broussonetia papyrifera, (not 

 native, always cultivated); Artocarpus altilis, (not native, culti- 

 vated for food as well as for bark cloth); Ficus spp. (growing wild 



75 



