no 



Ka Hana Kapa, 



Bambu Pkixtixg Types. 



The curious little banibu stamps which none of the early voA-agers saw, or at 

 least cared to mention, were a far better, if more laborious, substitute for the Samoan 

 upete, and the similar -wholesale stamp of the other southern groups. Fortunately 

 (as in the case of the kapa beaters) we have in this Museum a large niimber for our 

 e.Kamination. Especialh- liable to destruction, both b}- accident in use and the rav- 



FIG. 65. THE CARVED END OF BAMBU STAMPS. 



ages of insects, very few of the great numbers that must have been in use have sur- 

 vived, and it is seldom they are found in museums. 



The native bambu,"' Olic ( Banibiisa I'u/garis), never acquires great size, seldom 

 more than two inches in diameter, so that the portion of its cylindrical stem that 

 would be flat enough for a useful stamp is limited in most cases to less than an inch 

 in width, while the distance between joints is quite sufficient for convenient handling. 

 Plate 8 will show the general form of these, while Fig. 65 will show the carved ends, 



"Captain John Adams, whose residence here extende<l over much of the last centviry. believed this grass was 

 introduced, but he had no proof, and the use of it by the old Haw.iiians for nose-flutes, fans, mats, bellows, straight- 

 edge, knives, stamps and various instruments of percussion to mark time for the dance seems to indicate a greater 

 antiquit}'. The native name is applied also to two other canes and to a tree of different family, so that cannot be 

 cited as a witness to its-claim as a child of the soil; on the other hand it is found scattered all over the group in 

 valleys and at the foot of precipices, and in some cases in the craters of tufa cones. 



