MATERIALS FOR CLOTHING. 351 



strips of bamboo, on which the colour is placed, and the 

 tops pressed ; indeed, the fundamental principle is the 

 same as that of our printing books, the little strips of 

 bamboo standing in the place of our types. The chief 

 dye employed is the juice of the Lauci (Aleurites triloba, 

 Forst.), and the pattern, though rudely executed, often 

 displays much taste. It is stated that in times when the 

 Malo plantations have failed to produce a sufficient 

 quantity of raw material, recourse is had to the Baka 

 (Ficus sp.) ; but this is only a makeshift, whilst the bark 

 of the Breadfruit-tree seems never to be resorted to as 

 in other parts of Polynesia. 



When the men have no native cloth of any sort, they 

 make a dress by splitting a cocoa-nut or plantain leaf 

 in halves, and tying one of these parts around their 

 waist. There is an old monkish tradition that our first 

 parents, when adopting dress in the garden of Eden, 

 availed themselves of the leaf of the plantain, hence 

 called Musa paradisiaca ; and it must be owned that a 

 Fijian, having assumed this dress, presents a most pri- 

 mitive appearance, the more striking because his move- 

 ments are entirely free from any approach to indecency, 

 which a European who has never lived amongst races 

 going naked would naturally fancy associated with so 

 scanty a garb. It is, perhaps, the most simple form of 

 an article of dress much worn in Fiji, and called "lAlcu" 

 consisting of a number of fringes simply attached to a 

 waistband. The length of these fringes is subject to 

 certain rules of custom. Men can wear them very long ; 

 but women, particularly young unmarried ones, must not 

 have them longer than two or three inches. Liku is 



