OTAHEITAN CLOTH* Cl 



perhaps a brief description of the method pursued 

 may not be wholly uninteresting. 



The cleansed fibres are spread out on plantain leaves 

 to the length of about eleven or twelve yards ; these 

 are placed on a regular and equal surface of about a 

 foot in breadth. Two or three layers are thus laid 

 one upon the other, much attention being paid to 

 make the cloth of a uniform thickness : if in any of 

 the layers the bark happen to be thinner in one par- 

 ticular part, a piece somewhat thicker is laid over 

 that part in the next layer. This being completed, 

 the cloth is left to dry during the night, when great 

 part of the moisture with which it was saturated, on 

 first laying out, being evaporated, the several layers 

 are found to adhere together so as to allow of the 

 whole being raised from the ground in one piece. 

 It is then laid on a long smooth plank of wood pre- 

 pared for the purpose, and beaten with a wooden 

 instrument about a foot long and three inches square. 

 Each of the four sides has longitudinal grooves of 

 different degrees of fineness, the depth and width of 

 those on one side being sufficient to receive a small 

 packthread, the other sides being finer, in a regular 

 gradation, so that the grooves of the last side would 

 scarcely admit any thing coarser than sewing-silk. A 

 long handle being attached to this instrument, the 

 cloth is beaten first with its coarsest side, and spreads 

 very fast under the strokes : it is after this beaten 

 with the other sides successively, and then is con- 

 sidered fit for use. Sometimes, however, it is made 

 still thinner by beating it, after it has been several 

 times doubled, with the finest side of the mallet, and 

 it can thus be attenuated until it becomes almost as 

 thin as muslin. The cloth will sometimes break 

 while under this rough process, but the fracture is 

 very readily repaired by applying a piece of the bark, 

 which is made to adhere by a glutinous substance 



G 



