TUTUILA. 47 



washing their linen, Avhich they rubbed and beat upon stones, 

 as I had seen done by the Chinese and Hawaiians. This 

 practice, still so common among the French, once existed in 

 England, as we lea,rn from a letter of Dr. John London, one 

 of the visitors of religious houses in the reign of Henry VIII., 

 to Lord CromweU, making it a ground for granting a new 

 town hall ' to the lionest men of Eeadinge.' For, he says, 

 ' their Town Hall is a very small howse, and stondeth 

 upon the Eyuer wher ys the common wassching place of 

 the most part of the town, and in the cession dayes and 

 other court dayes ther ys such betying' with batiklores as 

 oon man can nott here another nor the guest here the 

 charge given.' ^ I saw cocoanut trees, breadfruit trees, the fruit 

 of whicli had not yet attained half its full size, plantations 

 of plantains and bananas, patches of taro set in a dry soil, 

 contrary to the Hawaiian practice in localities like this, on 

 the seaboard, which exclusively confines its cultivation to arti- 

 ficial marshes. These marshes are formed in this way. A 

 piece of land, varying in size, is surrounded by an earth bank ; 

 the ground being then turned up and irrigated by some neigh- 

 bouring stream, is worked up by the liand and trodden until it 

 becomes of so miry a nature that you may sink two or more 

 feet in it. The soil being thus prepared, the tops of the taro 

 plants are set in rows, about a foot or so apart, where 

 they are allowed to remain until their tuberculous roots are 

 fully formed, when they are ready for use. In Hawaii, 

 some taro is also cultivated in a dry soil ; but this is in the 

 ' Ellis, Original Letters, first series. 



