68 Ka Hana Kapa. 



made a home among the earlier inhabitants of the island, we should expect to find 

 some trace of Pol3'nesian customs, and in this we are not mistaken. In their burial 

 customs the Hova have many points of contact with their brethren cnitre 7iier ; nor 

 this alone, but in other ways it is not necessary to mention here; the point of interest 

 is, — did the}' make tapa? For a long time the people of Madagascar have had looms, 

 rude indeed but capable of good results, and man}' of their lavihas (a rectangular sheet 

 worn somewhat in the manner of a Roman toga) show taste and good workmanship; 

 they are also of considerable cost, from $25 to %^o each. With all their weaving they 

 have not given up their bark-cloth, and I quote from the Rev. James Sibree, a well-known 

 authority on Madagascar: — "The bark-cloth just mentioned, as used for girdles 

 [malo], is made by the people of the south-east coast and the forest tribes; but in this 

 branch of handicraft the Malagasy cannot compete with the delicate fabrics prepared 

 from the bark of trees b}^ manj' of the PoU-nesian races. The bark-cloth of the Tai- 

 moro, Tanala'" and other tribes, is a coarse reddish-brown material, of little strength, 

 except in the dire(5lion of the fibre; but its use, as well as the uon-emplovment of 

 skins for clothing, is one of the many links of counedlion between the Malagasv and 

 the Malavo-Polvnesian peoples, and serves (among many other peculiarities ) to mark 

 them off distinctly from the African tribes, who make such large \ise of the skins of 

 animals as articles of dress."" 



In Africa we reach perhaps the limit of our search for bark-cloth. Captain 

 Richard F. Burton, whose travels made him familiar with so many people and their 

 wavs, tells us: — "At Ujiji the people are observed, for the first time, to make exten- 

 sive use of the macerated tree-bark This article, technicall}' called '')ubugu\ is 



made from the inner bark of various trees, especially the viriviha and the viivalc 

 [Raphia]. The trunk of the full-grown tree is stripped of its integument twice or 

 thrice, and is bound with plantain leaves till a finer growth is judged fit for manipula- 

 tion. The bark is carefull}- removed, steeped in water, macerated, kneaded, and 

 pounded with clubs and battens to the consistency of a coarse cotton. Palm-oil is then 

 spirted upon it from the mouth and it acquires the colour of chamois leather. . . .They 

 are fond of striping it with a black vegetable mud so as to resemble the spoils of 

 leopards and wild cats Though durable, it is never washed." ''° 



We have a later and somewhat fuller account from Baganda: — "Every man 

 knows how to make bark cloths, and is expected to provide them for his wife and family, 

 both for clothing and covering by night. The tree from which the bark is procured 



"I have in lU}' collection a specimen of cloth from the Tanala district, thanks to Prof. H. Balfour of Oxford ; 

 the color is shown in PI. AA, No. n ; the texture is fairly even, thick and strong, but rough to the touch. It seems 

 to be made as well as specimens from New Guinea, or the Papuan region at large. • 



" Madagascar before the Conquest. London, 1896, p. 330. 



'"Journ. Roy. Geog. Society, xxix, 222. 



