Fijian Tapa-making. 31 



While I have seen the native cloth still in nse in a visit to Suva, and have 

 good specimens in my colledion, I saw nothing of the manufadure, and will turn to a 

 good authority on this matter, Dr. Berthold Seemann, whose observations while on a 

 government mission fifty years ago (1S60), are as follows: — "Materials for the scanty 

 clothing worn by the Fijians are readily supplied by a variety of plants, foremost 

 amongst which stands the Malo or Paper Mulberry {Broussoiicti'a papyrifera, Vent.), a 

 middle-sized tree, with rough trilobed leaves, cultivated all over Fiji. On the coast, 

 the native cloth (Tapa) and plaitings are gradually displaced by cheap cotton prints 

 introduced by foreign traders, — a fathom of which is considered enough for the entire 

 dress of a man. In the inland heathen districts the bo3'S are allowed to run naked 



FIG. 10. A FIJIAN IKE AND BAIIBU ROLI, FOR LINING. 



until they have attained the age of puberty, and publicly assumed what may be 

 termed their /oga virilis — a narrow strip of native cloth (]\Ialo) passing between the 

 legs, and fastened either to a waistband of string or to a girdle formed b}- one of the 

 ends of the cloth itself. The length of the Tapa hanging down in front denotes the 

 rank of the wearer; the lower classes not having it longer than is absolutely necessary 

 for the purposes of securing it to the waistband, whilst the chiefs let it dangle on the 

 ground, and when incommoded by it in walking, pla^-fully swing it over their 

 shoulder. In the christianized districts of the coast, a piece of Tapa, at least twt) 

 j-ards long and one 3'ard broad, is worn around the loins, and distinguished persons 

 envelope their body in pieces many yards long, and allow long trains to drag after 

 them on the ground. A fine kind of Tapa (Sala) is worn in the shape of a turl)uu l)y 



those who still adhere to the old custom of letting their hair grow long The 



manufaAure of native cloth is entirely left to women of places not inhabited by great 

 chiefs, probably because the noise caused by the beating out of the cloth is disliked 



