Rev. Win. Ellis Describes Hawaiian Kapa-making. 45 



He had the advantage of living in intimate association with the people he 

 describes shared by none of the previous witnesses we have cited, all of whom were 

 but birds of passage, here one week, gone tl:e next. Ellis had seen the tapa-making 

 in Tahiti, and it was no new or mj-sterious process he was investigating, so I have 

 given space for all he had to say even though repetition ma}' seem useless. It cer- 

 tainly serves to confirm or contradict the account of his forerunners. 



" For several da3'S past we have observed many of the people bringing home 

 from their plantations bundles of young waiiti (n. \2.r{&ty oi t\\& Monis papyri/era)^ 

 from which we infer that this is the season for the cloth-making in this part of the 

 island. [July, 1823.] 



"This morning, the 17th, we perceived Keoua, the governor's wife, and her 

 female attendants, with about forty other women, under the pleasant shade of a 

 beautiful clump of cordia or kou trees, emploj-ed in stripping off the bark from bundles 

 of zuauti sticks, for the purpose of making it into cloth. The sticks were generally 

 from six to ten feet long, and about an inch in diameter at the thickest end. They 

 first cut the bark, the whole length of the stick, with a sharp serrated shell, 

 and having carefully peeled it off, rolled it into small coils, the inner bark being 

 outside. In this state it is left some time, to make it flat and smooth. Keoua not 

 only worked herself, but appeared to take the superintendence of the M'hole part}'. 

 Whenever a fine piece of bark was found, it was shown to her, and put aside to be 

 manufadlured into wairiirii, or some other particular cloth. With livel}' chat and 

 cheerful song, they appeared to beguile the hours of labor until noon, when having 

 finished their work, they repaired to their dwellings. 



"This wauti plant, of which the greater part of the cloths on this side of the 

 island is made, is cultivated with much care in their gardens of sugar-cane, plantains 

 etc., and whole plantations are sometimes appropriated exclusivel}- to its growth. 

 Slips about a foot long are planted nearly two feet apart, in long rows, four or six 

 feet asunder. Two or three shoots rise from most of the slips, and grow till they arc 

 six or twelve feet high, according to the richness of the soil, or the kind of cloth for 

 which they are intended. Any small branches that ma}- sprout out from the side of 

 the long shoot, are carefully plucked off, and sometimes the bud at the top of the plant 

 is pulled out, to cause an increase in its size. Occasionally the}' are two years grow- 

 ing and seldom reach the size at which they are fit for use, in less than twelve or even 

 eighteen months; when they are cut off near the ground, the old I'oots being left, to 

 produce shoots another year. 



"The bark when stripped off and rolled up, as described above, is left several 

 days; when, on being unrolled, it appears flat. The outer bark is then taken off. 



