THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE. 69 



In addition to the forogoiny list of plants that were cultivated to a cer- 

 tain extent, there were a number of others that were made use of as food in 

 times of scarcity that could hardly be regarded as cultivated in a strict sense. 



Fiber Plants. 



The paper mulberry, called wauki, one of the plants from which their 

 bark cloth was manufactured, was regularly cultivated, there being extensive 

 groves of this small tree planted about almost every n.itive home. The plant 

 was kept carefully trimmed from its earliest growth in order to prevent it fol- 

 lowing its inclination to branch out from the main stem. In this way a single 

 shoot was secured unbroken by branches. When it had attained a height of 

 ten or twelve feet and a diameter of an inch or two. the men cut the plants and 

 the women stripped otf the bark in a single piece by splitting it from end to 

 end of the stem. The outer bark was then scraped otf and the fibrous part 

 forming the inner bark, was rolled endways into loose disk-like bundles 

 and left to dry until it had taken on a fiat surface. The bark was then placed 

 in water until it became covered with a mucilaginous coating; then it was laid 

 on a stone or a log prepared for the purpose and beaten with a series of round 

 and square sticks of hard wood, known as tapa beaters. 



]\Ianufacture of Tapa. 



In the making of tapa cloth, strips of raw material were laid side by side 

 and doubled, pounded and manipulated in order to unite the free edges, the mass 

 being kept saturated with w^ater during the process. The length and breadth 

 of the tapa sheet was increased at pleasure by the addition of more bark. Sheets 

 double the size of an ordinary blanket were frequently made in this simple way. 

 The water mark in the fibre, as well as the texture and thickness, was regu- 

 lated by the amount of the beating and the character and markings of the mallet 

 used. Places torn in making the sheet were mended by rewelding the edges. 

 When finished the tapa was spread in the sun to dry and bleach. 



The next step in the process was the dying and marking of the clotli. The 

 tapa is naturally of a light color and much of it was worn in that state, but a 

 great portion of it was stained either with dyes, mostly of vegetable origin, 

 or by mixing with the sheet while in a plastic state fragments of old colored 

 tapas that had been reduced to pulp. The colors used were both beautiful and 

 durable — yellow, salmon, straw, blues in various shades, puri)le, green, red, lilac, 

 pink, dove, chocolate, brown, fawn, as well as black and white were quite com- 

 mon. The list of vegetable and mineral dyes utilized in j)i-(»(luce the various 

 colors is a long one and shows a knowledge of the simple clieinical reactions of 

 the dyer's art that is truly remarkable. Leaves, roots and hai-k were used in 

 various conditions, singly and in combination, often witli minei'al substances, 

 as salt, earth, inuck. charcoal, or occasionally wilii animal dyes, as that derived 

 from the sea-urchin, the s(iniil and ceiiain sea slugs. 



