Comparative Vabie of Polynesian Kapa. 71 



Of the Bairo of Ankole he says (p. 607): "The Bairo used dressed skins or 

 bark-cloth. However little they may have in the wa}' of clothing, they generally so 

 arrange it, as do the Baganda, to safeguard decency ; whereas the men of their Bahima 

 aristocracy, are more like the Masai, inasmuch as they rarely think it necessarj^ to use 

 their body coverings as fegmnenta pudendornmy 



It seems almost rash to discuss the comparative value of the kapa of the vari- 

 ous Polynesian groups with so little material before us, either of actual specimens or 

 the contributions of careful observers ; and if there were any hope of greatly extending 

 our survey, now or at any future time, it would be unwise to sum up the old-time work 

 which is no longer in vogue. Of the kapa itself there is perhaps here or there a speci- 

 men hidden in some private collection unnoticed ; in museums some examples wrongly 

 attributed; that is about all that remains outside. From the judgment of those who 

 saw this primitive manufacture at its best on most of the Pacific groups, Hawaii and 

 Tahiti certainly lead, and when we consider the material in hand, much of it brought 

 home by Cook and the later explorers following in his wake, there can be little doubt 

 that Hawaii leads in the variety and beauty of her design, while Tahiti seems to equal 

 the northern group in fine quality of plain kapa. 



From the Marquesas we have only plain kapa, good and useful, but not re- 

 markable. From Fiji we have excellent design well executed, but the qualit}- of the 

 cloth is usually second-rate. Tonga has many fine specimens both of cloth and of 

 decoration. Nine was praised by some explorers for her work, but little of it has come 

 into our colleClions, and the same is true of Mangaia, Rurutu and the southeast Pacific 

 generall}^ Samoa seems to have been handicapped by the facility of produdlion 

 afforded by the npete^ but the Samoans made finely ruled siapo.^ and also represented 

 natural objects (Pis. 34, 23). 



I have from New Zealand a single specimen of Maori-made kapa which I greatly 

 value, for we have seen that the aute has been extinct in New Zealand now manj' years. 

 It is white, thin and fairly well beaten, quite suited to the use our authorities tell us 

 it served. Another single specimen from Lifu of the Loyalty group, is also made 

 from the paper-mulberry, beaten with hoopai''"' beaters, and of tolerably even texture. 



The Melanesian, Papuan, Malayan and African kapa certainly belongs to 

 another class, and was generally made from very different material. The workman- 

 ship also is rude, often primitive; the dyes, where used (which was rarely), were not 

 very skilfully applied and the decoration is largely symbolic and reminds one of the 

 deerskin documents of the Amerind. Colors were few, although some of them seem 

 very permanent, and it is not in evidence that the makers used carved stamps or type. 



'•• Hoopai is described in the next chapter. 



