I 12 



Ka Han a Kapa. 



and Plate 9 the impressions made. Tiic relief is rather strong, and, Avith a careful 

 hand, capable of giving a clear impression, while the combination of these impressions 

 is capable of great variation. With the method of holding the stamp, supported b}' 

 another liambu as a mahlstick, the process is by no means difficult. 



Besides the nlickapaln, he olic kitkau in this Museum, I have had the use of the 

 very choice ones in the collection of the Hon. vS. M. Damon at Moanalua. Of some 

 of these an illustration is given in Fig. 66, while their impression is shown in Fig. 67. 



If the banibu was not indigenous, or of vcr^• early introduction, it may well be 

 asked with what did the older Hawaiians stamp the specimens which are still before 

 us after an existence of a century and a half? In answer we ma\- point to the very 

 rare wooden stamjis, one (B. P. B. M. 2949 j is in this Museum, and another in Copen- 



^*^^. ^^^ 



Fig. 6S. stamp in copknhack.v. 



Fig. 69. STAMP ON KAPA. 



hagen ; they also used tortoise-shell (cv?) as illustrated in Plate 7, the third specimen 

 from the right, where the pattern is cut from thin shell and neatly lashed to a bambu 

 holder (which might have been of wood as well); and the inii^ression from such a 

 stamp is shown in No. 57 of Plate 9, and another in No. 38. 



While all the designs at hand are geometric and apparently destitute of all 

 symbolism, one in the Copenhagen Museum (which is given in F"ig. 68 about double 

 size), shows a very unusual pattern, and in the same museum I found two specimens 

 of kapa of modern appearance, one with bunches of red and black leaves, the other 

 with "palms". Fig. 69. In the same museum were six ohekapala, one with ea stamp; 

 here also was one of the instruments for cleaning the hoopai grooves of pa'u boards 

 and beaters, Fig. 47. 



There is another tool which is in effect the carpenter's "chalk line". Cords of 

 hau or coconut fibre were well twisted, dipped in dye and snapped across a sheet of 

 kapa, the result being, if the operator was dexterous, a broken line of more or less 

 regular rhombs. This is shown on many modern kapas and also on some of consider- 

 able age, but I am inclined to think the trick was borrowed from the foreigner. 



