Miscellaneous Uses of Kapa. 197 



it matters not, for it was far from Hawaii) of saving the bridal sheets for the last long 

 sleep, and this seems to be in a measure the feeling of the old Hawaiians. 



One more covering of frail mortality remains to be described, — the pall of black 

 kapa. It was euphemistic to say as did Kaumualii, the last king of Kauai, "Wait 

 till the black kapa covers me", — it was ill-omened to speak directly of one's death. 

 These black sheets are rare in collections, and are very fragile: something in the 

 method of dyeing destroys the fibre after a while and the sheet falls to pieces on the 

 least disturbance: in a burial cave such a sheet can sometimes be blown about in 

 fragments by a breath, although the undyed kapa of the same qualit}^ might retain 

 its strength for centuries. 



Kapa was used at times for screens and partitions in houses, and on the 

 southern islands for mosquito nets, like the tinavin of the Samoans. The Hawaiians 

 had none of these very troublesome insects before 1827 when they were maliciously 

 introduced by a wicked white man.^'' If a white man brought the pest, other white 

 men brought mosquito netting far superior to any made of kapa, and so no Hawaiian 

 tinamu was invented. 



As a decorative covering colored kapa had a verj^ limited use on walls of houses, 

 owing to the general darkness of the interior, although white kapa was sometimes 

 used to cover the inside of the thatch. It M^as used for decoration on the walls of the 

 more open lanai or porch, and we have seen the use on the whale boat in which 

 Kamamalu was carried in the festival procession. The thick ribbed kapa was used as 

 a mat, and a tough leathery variety was used in the early days of the Mission as a 

 handsome and suitable material for binding books ; a use that survives to the present 

 day in the case of the much less durable Samoan kapa. 



A firm, rather coarse, white kapa was used as a covering for the amai or oracle 

 in the heiau or temple where the gods were supposed to talk down to the priest or 

 chief: as from the windy rain storms it had to be frequently renewed, the color was 

 kept fairly white and these obelisks were visible for some distance, and as the temples 

 were often along shore or on the high bluffs over the bays, served as landmarks to the 



°' Objection having been made to the use of the words maliciously and ivicked by a member of the Publication 

 Committee, I add the following account of the introduction of this pest, which all people are desirous of banishing, 

 and many governments are trying at considerable expense to exterminate -with more or less success. In 1S64, while 

 the guest of Rev. Dr. D. Baldwin of the American Mission at Lahaina, Maui, I was told by my host that in 1S27 the 

 master of a trading vessel then lying off the port of I^ahaina was refused an unlimited supply of women on his 

 vessel, and also found difficulty in getting all the intoxicants he desired. This was the order of the native chiefs, 

 but, as usual in those times, it was imputed to the missionary' company, and the disappointed mariner vowed ven- 

 geance on the supposed disturbers of his revels. On his next voyage he brought a tub of stagnant water with a 

 supply of the enemy and landed it at Lahaina. Not long after a native came to Dr. Baldwin with a mosquito, which 

 he called "a fly which bites," and the doctor recognized the insect which he had never seen on the Hawaiian Islands 

 before. I leave to my readers whether such an act was malicious, and whether the fellow who did it was wicked. 

 I may add that he openly boasted of his deed. 



