8 Ka Hana Knpa. 



finest and whitest cloth, which is worn chiefly by the principal people; it is likewise 

 the most snitable for dyeing, especially with red. Of the second, which thev call 

 ooroo [«//^], is made a cloth inferior to the former in whiteness and softness, worn 

 chiefl}' b}- people of inferior degree. Of the third, which is by far the rarest, is made 

 a coarse, harsh cloth of the colonr of the deepest brown paper ; it is the only one they 

 have that at all resists water, and is much valued ; most of it is perfumed and used 

 b}' the ver}- great people as a morning dress. These three trees are cultivated with 

 much care, especially the former, which covers the largest part of their cultivated 

 land. Young plants of one or two years' growth only are used; their great merit is 

 that thev are thin, straight, tall, and without branches; to prevent the growth of 

 these last the}' pluck off with great care all the lower leaves and their germs, as often 

 as there is any appearance of a tendency to produce branches. 



"Their mode of manufadluring the bark is the same for all the sorts: one 

 description of it will therefore be sufficient. The thin bark the}- make thus; when 

 the trees have grown to a sufficient size they are drawn up, and the roots and tops cut 

 off and stripped of their leaves; the best of the aoitta are in this state about three or 

 four feet long and as thick as a man's finger, but the ooroo are considerably larger. 

 The bark of these rods is then slit up longitudinally, and in this manner drawn off 

 the stick; when all are stripped, the bark is carried to some brook or running water, 

 into which it is laid to soak with stones upon it, and in this situation it remains some 

 daj's. When sufficientlj* soaked the women servants go down to the river, and strip- 

 ping themselves, sit down in the water and scrape the pieces of bark, holding them 

 against a flat smooth board, with the shell called by the English shell merchants 

 Tiger's tongue {Tcl/ina gargadia)^ dipping it continually in the water until all the 

 outer green bark is rubbed and washed away, and nothing remains but the very fine 

 fibres of the inner bark. This work is generally finished in the afternoon : in the 

 evening the pieces are spread out upon plantain leaves, and in doing this I suppose 

 there is some difficulty, as the mistress of the family- generally presides over the 

 operation. All that I could observe was that thej- laid them in two or three laj-ers, 

 and seemed ver}- careful to make them everywhere of equal thickness, so that if an}- 

 part of a piece of bark had been scraped too thin, another thin piece was laid over it, 

 in order to render it of the same thickness as the rest. When laid out in this man- 

 ner, a piece of cloth is eleven or twelve yards long, and not more than a foot broad, 

 for as the longitudinal fibres are all laid lengthwise, they do not expect it to stretch in 

 that diredlion, though they well know how considerabl}- it will in the other. 



"In this state the}- suffer it to remain till morning, by which time a large 

 proportion of the water with which it was thoroughly soaked has drained oft' or evapo- 



