20 Ka Haua Kapa. 



wooden club, with longitiidinal and parallel furrows, which run smaller and closer 

 together on the different sides. The}- ceased a little while to give us time to examine 

 the bark, the mallet, and the timber on which they performed their operations. They 

 aLso shewed us a kind of glutinous water in a coco-nut shell, which was made use of 

 from time to time, to make the pieces of bark cohere together. This glue, which, as 



•FIG. 7. TAHITIAN CLOTH BROUGHT HOMK ON COOK. S SECOND VOYAGE. 



we understood, was made of the hibiscus esculentus^ is indispensibly necessar}- in the 

 manufacture of those immense pieces of cloth, sometimes two or three yards wide, 

 and fifty yards long, which are composed of little bits of bark, taken from trees never 

 so thick as the wrist. We carefully examined their plantations of mulberry-trees, but 

 never found a single old one among them; as soon as they are of two years growth 

 they are cut down, and new ones spring up from the root, for fortunately this tree is 

 one of the most prolific in nature, and if suffered to grow till it flowered and could 

 bear fruits, might perhaps totall}' over-run the countrj'. The bark must always be 

 taken from 3'oung trees; and these are carefully drawn into long stems, without any 



