54 



Ka HiDia Kapa. 



queeu aud her frieuds seemed not ouly insensible to any inconvenience from it, but 

 quite amused at its apparent effect on us. The sound of the cloth-beating mallet is 

 not disagreeable, where heard at a distance in some of the retired valleys, indicating the 

 abode of industry aud peace; but in the cloth-houses it is hardly possible to endure it. 

 "As the wives and daughters of the chiefs take a pride in manufacturing 

 superior cloth, the queen would often have felt it derogatory to her rank, if any other 



FIG. 20. A MKLAXESIAN KAPA. BROWN .\ND BLACK ST.\Ml>Kll ON BI FF. BRITISH MISKIM. 



females in the island cuuld have finished a piece of cloth better than herself. . . .The 

 ahu or cloth made with the bark of a tree, although exceedingly perishable when 

 compared with European woven cloth, yet furnished, while it lasted, a light and loose 

 dress adapted to the climate and the habits of the people. The duration of a Tahitian 

 dress depended upon the materials with which it was made, the aoa being considered 

 the strongest. Onl}- the highU- varnished kinds were proof against wet. The beaut}' 

 of the various kinds of painted cloth was soon marred, and the texture destro}-ed by 

 the rain, as the}- were kept together simph- by the adhesion of the interwoven fibres 

 of the bark. Notwithstanding this, a tiputa, or a good strong pareu, when preserved 



