350 A MISSION TO VITI. 



dress. The manufacture of native cloth is entirely left 

 to women of places not inhabited by great chiefs, pro- 

 bably because the noise caused by the beating out of 

 the cloth is disliked by courtly ears. The rhythm of 

 Tapa-beating imparts therefore as thoroughly a country 

 air to a place in Fiji as that of threshing corn does to 

 our European villages. The Masi tree is propagated by 

 cuttings, and grown about two or three feet apart, in 

 plantations resembling nurseries. For the purposes of 

 making cloth it is not allowed to become higher than 

 about twelve feet, and about one inch in diameter. The 

 bark, taken off in as long strips as possible, is steeped 

 in water, scraped with a conch shell, and then mace- 

 rated. In this state it is placed on a log of wood, and 

 beaten with a mallet (Ike), three sides of which have 

 longitudinal grooves, and the fourth a plain surface. 

 Two strips of Tapa are always beaten into one with the 

 view of strengthening the fibres an operation increas- 

 ing the width of the cloth at the expense of its length. 

 It is easy to join pieces together, the sap of the fibres 

 being slightly glutinous ; and in order to make the 

 junction as perfect and durable as possible, a paste is 

 prepared of arrowroot, or a glue of the viscid berries 

 of the Tou (Cordia Sprengelii, De Cand.). I have seen 

 pieces of native cloth, intended for mosquito curtains 

 and screens, which were nearly one hundred feet long 

 and thirty feet broad. Most of the cloth worn is pure 

 white, being bleached in the sun as we bleach linen ; 

 but printed Tapa is also, though not so frequently, seen, 

 whilst that used for curtains is always coloured. Their 

 mode of printing is by means of raised forms of little 



