Anvils for Kapa-beating. 77 



has a curvature of 8 inches radius; No. 7593 is 73 inches long-, 9.7 inches wide at base, 

 5.7 at top, and has a radius of 145 inches) , and a hole, round or square, at the smaller end 

 for hanging on a peg or hook, or, it maj^ be, for attaching the hank of fibrous material. 

 Of course, hard, tough woods were essential, such as ohia {Metrosideros polyviorpha) ^ 

 kauila (Alphitonia excelsa), or uhiuhi {Ccrsalpinta kaiiaiensis). 



• The fibre, from whatever source, freed from its outer bark and well soaked 

 (in running water by preference), was now to be beaten or felted, and with this pro- 

 cess we take up tools peculiar to kapa-making. The earliest beaters used bv a primi- 

 tive people were simpl}' round clubs such as are still used for the purpose by people 

 who have not advanced far in this manufacture, as the blacks in central Africa. 

 A modified and improved form of this rude beater was used bv the Hawaiians for the 



Fig. 32. KL'A KVKU AXD PAPA HOLE KUA ULA. 



first beating of the fibre; sometimes a round club (No. 385), but generallj- grooved 

 longitudinall}' (Nos. 367 and 372), and iu all cases cut down at one end for a more 

 convenient handle, and called hohoa. These three are shown in Plate i, and it will 

 be noticed that one (372) is poh^hedral, the others are round; the}- are represented 

 about half size. The round was found better for separating the close fibre than the 

 flat form used later in the manufacfture. We have seen that other than Pol3'nesians 

 often with such round clubs beat the bark loose from the tree stems, as can easil}- be 

 done in the case of some of the genus Ficus. 



The Hawaiian, however, used an independent anvil made in a definite and little 

 varying form after the primitive log had been discarded for something more convenient 

 or efficient. I would not claim that the transition was immediate from the stem of a 

 tree, or a rude log, to the complete anvil here figured. Doubtless there were manv 

 and various forms inter\'ening, but the anvils in use at the time of the discontinuance 

 of kapa-making were of this definite form, and none of the primitive ones had survived 

 so far as known. It is noteworth}- that the people of the other groups still held to 

 the rectangular log, often (as in Tahiti) of considerable length, and so far as the ac- 



