1769 CLOTH MANUFACTURE 147 



where of equal thickness, so that if any part of a piece 

 of bark had been scraped too thin, another thin piece 

 was laid over it, in order to render it of the same thick- 

 ness as the rest. When laid out in this manner, a piece 

 of cloth is eleven or twelve yards long, and not more 

 than a foot broad, for as the longitudinal fibres are all 

 laid lengthwise, they do not expect it to stretch in that 

 direction, though they well know how considerably it will 

 in the other. 



In this state they suffer it to remain till morning, by 

 which time a large proportion of the water with which it was 

 thoroughly soaked has either drained off or evaporated, and 

 the fibres begin to adhere together, so that the whole may 

 be lifted from the ground without dropping in pieces. It 

 is then taken away by the women servants, who beat it in 

 the following manner. They lay it upon a long piece of 

 wood, one side of which is very even and flat, this side being 

 put under the cloth : as many women then as they can 

 muster, or as can work at the board together, begin to beat it. 

 Each is furnished with a baton made of the hard wood, etoa 

 (Casuarina equisetifolia) : it is about a foot long and square 

 with a handle ; on each of the four faces of the square are 

 many small furrows, whose width differs on each face, and 

 which cover the whole face. 1 They begin with the coarsest 

 side, keeping time with their strokes in the same manner as 

 smiths, and continue until the cloth, which extends rapidly 

 under these strokes, shows by the too great thinness of the 

 groves which are made in it that a finer side of the beater 

 is requisite. In this manner they proceed to the finest side, 

 with which they finish ; unless the cloth is to be of that 

 very fine sort hoboo, which is almost as thin as muslin. In 

 making this last they double the piece several times, and 

 beat it out again and afterwards bleach it in the sun and 

 air, which in these climates produce whiteness in a very 



1 The instrument is apparently something like a razor strop, of which the 

 cross section is square, having longitudinal furrows, a varying number on 

 each face. By the "coarsest side" is to be understood the face with the 

 fewest furrows, which are larger and more deeply indented. 



