Tongan Tapa-bcating. . 29 



Cook does not speak with great praise of the Tongan tapa, but the specimens 

 that he brought home (he visited this group both in his first and second voyages) 

 rival the best of Hawaii. We will see what he says: — "They make the same kind 

 of cloth, and of the same materials, as at Otaheite; though they have not such a 

 variety, nor do they make any so fine; but as they have a method of glazing it, it is 

 more durable, and will resist rain for some time, which Otaheite cloth will not. Their 

 colours are black, brown, purple, yellow and red ; all made from vegetables." "'^ 



I have in my colledlion two specimens of this glazed cloth, one plain, the other 

 figured, brought from New Amsterdam (Cook uses Tasman's name for Tongatabu) 

 on his first voyage. Both remind one of the better kind of Samoan siapo. The cloth 

 certainly is not so fine as the Tahitian or Hawaiian, but the glaze waterproofs and 

 strengthens it to a considerable degree. It is the figured cloth, which perhaps Cook 

 had not seen, that I would compare with the Samoan product, and have illustrated 

 below under Samoan work. A visitor in Juue, 1S50, tells us, — "One of the things 

 that strikes a visitor most upon his arrival at Tongatabu, is the incessant hammering 

 which commences at daybreak and continues without interruption until about noon. 

 To satisfy ourselves as to the cause of this, we entered the first house in which we 

 heard the noise, and found two women engaged in making tappa or native cloth. 

 They were seated on the ground, one on each side of a log about 6 feet long and 

 6 inches square, which was raised just clear of the floor by means of short bits of stick 

 placed under the ends of it. Each woman had a piece of the bark, of which the tapa 

 is made, laid before her on the log, and was beating it with a wooden mallet about a 

 foot in length, the handle being rounded, and the striking end square, with grooves 

 in the sides. They wetted the bark from time to time, sprinkling water upon it from 

 a large wooden bowl that stood upon the ground beside them." "' 



The only new thing he tells us is that each woman was beating a separate 

 piece of bark; if he was correct a most unusual proceeding. He evidently saw noth- 

 ing of the more curious process of stamping the cloth ; a process not attended with 

 sufficient noise to attract a casual traveler. We shall, however, learn the probable 

 process when we come to Fiji and the still extant manufacture on Samoa. I cannot 

 find much of importance recorded by later travelers to this interesting group. 



On the Marquesas, Forster, the companion on Cook's second voyage, already 

 quoted, found, — "All the women wore pieces of cloth of the mulberry bark, of different 

 sorts; but the variety of these cloths was very trifling, compared with what it is at 



"Cook, 1773, p. 219. "'O. W liricrly, Jourii. Roy. OcoH- Soc, xxii, 102. 



