64 



Ka Hana Kapa. 



of Polynesia. The cloth made by the tribes of the Malay Peninsula is, as a rule, more 

 roughly manufadlured, though some very good cloth, decorated with zigzag patterns, 

 is made in Perak. An interesting point is that the grooving or toothing of the bark- 

 cloth mallet used by some of the Jakun runs longitudinally instead of transversely 

 as in specimens from Rotuma. [I, page 140.] 



"The bark-cloth which forms the ordi- 

 nary workaday wear of all the wilder branches 

 of these tribes is usually made from the same 

 material as the "tapa" cloth of Polynesia, though 

 it is rarely, if ever, quite so finely worked up, 

 and is generally, in fact, somewhat roughly 

 made. When stripped from the tree it is beaten 

 out bv means of a wooden mallet, either round 

 or toothed. A specimen of the latter, which was 

 collected bv the writer among the Blandas of 

 Selangor, is now in the Cambridge Museum; 

 this specimen is grooved or toothed transverse- 

 ly, as in Sakai specimens from Batang Padang 

 (Perak), whereas in other districts, more under 

 Semang influence, the flat under surface of the 

 mallet is subdivided into a large number of 

 small squares. The dire(5lion of the grooves or 

 teeth must of course depend upon the position 

 in which the operator sits or stands with respect 

 to his work. The cloth when made is often 

 decorated with designs, which again bear a 

 curious family resemblance to the main designs 

 sometimes seen on "tapa" cloth. 



"The tree from which the bark is gen- 

 erall}' taken is a kind of wild bread-fruit tree 

 {Artocarpus Ki(iistlen\ Hook.), which is called 



by the Malays "terap" or "t'rap". But the bark of other trees (even that of the Upas 

 tree, Anliaris toxicaria, Bl., which furnishes the deadlv dart-poison of these tribes) 

 is also very generally' used, the poisonous sap being merelj' well washed out of it with 

 water. This particular kind of cloth seems generally to be recorded from districts 

 under some degree of Semang (Negrito) influence." [I, page 375.] Fig. 26 shows a 

 specimen of this cloth made by the Semang of Kedah with the club with which it 

 was beaten out in the author's presence. 



FIG. 25. SAKAI GIRI, OF SOUTH PERAK. 

 Skeat & Blagden. I, 152. 



