28 A'c? Han a I\apa. 



throw them awa_v. They lav on the colour with a small brush of stringy fibres, made 

 of a rush called mooo, like a camel's hair peucil. 



" There are other trees from which cloth is made, but the process is the same 

 in all. Sometimes they paste together pieces of different colours, cut into curious 

 shapes, in which display- of taste the erreoies excel. 



"The women, with their feminine male associates, make the cloth; the men 

 provide the materials. The beam on which the bark is spread, is about twelve feet 

 long, made of a hard wood called marra, squared to six or eight inches, and finely 

 smoothed on the upper side. The beetles are formed of toa, about fourteen inches 

 long, and two and a half square. The sides are grooved of four different sizes, as the 

 cloth is to be made of a finer or coarser thread; the handle is round; the beetle is 

 called aye}-; the beam, tdootdooa." 



Continuing the list of trees and shrubs oi:r aiithors give some information 

 about the qualities of each, but we will Cjuote only those concerned with the cloth 

 making. In speaking of the Tamaxoo (Calop/iylliini InopIivUuni)^ the}' refer to the 

 nut as used to perfume the cloth but the chief fragrance is in the flower. Tdootdooa 

 (tutui, Aleitn'tes s/>.), thev note that the bark of the root affords a light brown dye. 

 Tow {Cordia sp.) gives the crimson with the juice of the IMattdk (Ficits sp.), which 

 also has a bark fit for cloth-making. Xoxo {Moi-i)ida ciiri folia) ^ gives with an 

 infusion of the inner root bark a fine light yellow dye. Eawwa, a tree I cannot iden- 

 tif}-, unless it be a species of banian fig, yields when j-oung from its inner bark a fine 

 gra}- cloth called oraa, the most serviceable and valued of all their nianufa(5lures. 

 I have not 3-et identified this among any of Cook's tapa specimens. 



We have not j-et done with the information to be obtained from Cook and his 

 companions. At Ulietea Cook saw a large piece of cloth fiftv yards long. '*" At 

 Oheteroa ^ Rurutu of the Austral group, he reports, — "The cloth was of the same 

 material as that which is worn in the other islands, and most of that which was seen 

 b}' our people, was dved of a bright but deep yellow, and covered on the outside with 

 a composition like varnish, which was either red, or of a dark lead colour; over this 

 ground it was again painted in stripes of many different patterns with wonderful 

 regularity, in the manner of our striped silks in England; the cloth that was painted 

 red was striped with black, and that which was painted lead colour with white." '" This 

 island long famous for its tapa, seems to have completel}- abandoned the work. The 

 cloth described as varnished red and striped black was made also at Samoa, and I have 

 a fine sheet of it given me by Lieut. IMoses, U. S. N. 



'Cook, 1769, II, p. 266. ''Cook, 1769. II, p. 277. 



