Captain King Describes Hawaiian Kapa-niaking. 43 



and light blue. In general the pieces which they brought to us, were about two feet 

 broad, and four or five yards long, being the form and quantity that they use for their 

 common dress or 7naro,^° and even these we sometimes found were composed of pieces 

 sewed together; an art which we did not find to the Southward, but is strongly, though 

 not very neatly, performed here. There is also a particular sort that is thin, much 

 resembling oil-cloth ; and which is actually either oiled, or soaked in some kind of 

 varnish and seems to resist the action of water pretty well." (Z. c, p. 237.) 



It is not strange that Cook was surprised at the accuracy of the drawing, and 

 besides examples in Plates S, T, U and W, I am able to give in Fig. 19 a fragment 

 colle^led on this voyage that is of a kind Cook may have had in mind. Death here 

 interrupts the observations of the great Captain, and Ave must turn to the third volume 

 of the account of this voyage, where Captain King continues the narrative, and we 

 find he repeats much, but his stor}^ is worth quoting in full, so far as it relates to our 

 study. It was in March, 1779, on the second visit to the group: — 



"Their cloth is made of the same materials, and in the same manner, as at the 

 Friendly and Society Islands. That which is designed to be painted, is of a thick 

 and strong texture, several folds being beat and incorporated together; after which it 

 is cut in breadths, about two or three feet wide, and is painted in a variety of patterns, 

 with a comprehensiveness and regularity of design that bespeaks infinite taste and 

 fanc}'. The exactness with which the most intricate patterns are continued, is the 

 more surprising, when we consider, that they have no stamps, and that the whole is 

 done by the e3^e, with pieces of bamboo cane dipped in paint, the hand being supported 

 by another piece of the cane, in the manner practised by our painters. Their colours 

 are extradled from the same berries and other vegetable substances, as at Otaheite, 

 which have been alread}^ described b}' former voj^agers. 



"The business of painting belongs entirely to the women, and is called kip- 

 paree \^kiipalapala\^ and it is remarkable, that they alwa3'S gave the same name to 

 our writing. The 3^oung women would often take the pen out of our hands, and shew 

 us, that they knew the use of it as well as we did; at the same time telling us, that 

 our pens were not so good as theirs. The}^ looked upon a sheet of written paper as a 

 piece of cloth striped after the fashion of our countr}^, and it was not without the 

 utmost difiiculty, that we could make them understand, that our figures had a mean- 

 ing in them which theirs had not."^' 



It would hardly be worth while to quote from La Perouse, he made so short a 

 visit to the island of Maui, were it not that he thought the kapa inferior to all the 



^°This size was too large for the malo and more suitable for the pa'u of the women. 

 "Cook's Third Voyage. I^ondon, 17S4. 111,148. 



