CHAPTER III. 



THE RAW MATERIAI,. 



That the small list I shall give here of the material used for the fabrication 

 of bark-cloth is complete, even for the Hawaiian Islands, cannot be claimed. No one 

 now knows what convenience or necessity added to the cultivated stock which was the 

 main dependence of the kapa-makers: but this is of little importance in the Hawaiian 

 region, for these supernumeraries played no important part in the manufadlure. In 

 other countries, especially in continental regions, the greater richness of the Flora 

 gave mau}^ desirable trees and shrubs from which innumerable experiments, extending 

 through uncounted centuries, had sifted out the most suitable from the merel}" good- 

 enough ; and we have seen that in the tapa region of Africa various (not alwaj-s known ) 

 specimens of the genus Ficus are the chief purveyors, and in the Mala3^an home even 

 the "deadly Upas tree", that bugbear in the stories of former days, furnishes a good 

 and harmless bark easily beaten into useful cloth. 



Still the Paper-mulberr}', the waoke^^^ or wauke^ of the Hawaiians, aiite^ vialo^ 

 iiiasi\ etc., of other peoples, easily holds the first place, from China, where its use is first 

 recorded, to the "islands in the uttermost part of the sea." Everj^where cultivated as a 

 very useful plant, it appears as a homeless wanderer; like the Children of Israel, it has 

 been taken from its native country to be a desirable help and comfort to the tribes who 

 receive and cherish it. But unlike the Hebrew wanderers, its home has been forgotten : 



"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let mj' right haud forget her skill." 



Fully has its cultivation been described in the manj^ quotations from the early 

 voyagers, and it only remains to give the reader a picture of the plant and some idea 

 of its botanical relationships. Would that a picture could be presented of an old 

 Hawaiian plantation ! But before photograph}- was common they had ceased to be, 

 and it must have been a more than usuall}^ skilful draughtsman who could fix the 

 delicate, ever moving leaves of the waoke; in the breezes the rows along the edges of 

 the kalo patches seemed to me like kahilis waving over the feast; the slender stems 

 and the delicate leaves seemed in perpetual motion. The picttire of a plant from 

 Manoa valley (Fig. 74)'^ is the best at hand. 



^*l have preferred the first speUing as most closely conforming to the pronuiiciulion of the old kapa-makers. 

 "The plant was kindly furnished by Dr. C. M. Cooke of the Museum staff. (n?) 



