A Catalogue oj the Kapa Studied. 249 



long straight lines which so closelj^ simulate cotton cords. The under sheet is 

 of similar charadler and color. Bj- purchase. 



I should recall the fact that in the caves in which the remains of alii are de- 

 posited, trusting to various means of concealment, all of which time and the enter- 

 prise of seekers are likely to reveal, the bones, or in some cases the dried mumm3f 

 (as in the caves on the Waimea, Hawaii, plain, now covered after remaining open 

 some years) were wrapped in kapa of the choicest, and age added no little value to 

 the kapa seledled ; hence we may place the age of a cave deposit at ninety or a hun- 

 dred years, while the kapa found around the remains may (in the wonderfully dry 

 caves of Hawaii) have been made a century or even more before the burial. These 

 very old specimens present the greatest puzzle to the student of kapa-making, 

 for they seem to show processes in the manufacture quite distinct from those 

 known in the last century. Not one of the Cook kapas are comparable with the 

 torn, wrinkled, stained, often decayed fragments from the caves. After careful 

 and prolonged disinfection in the vapor of carbon bisulphid, they must often be 

 soaked in water to remove the long time creases and wrinkles, and this process 

 serves to show us if the fabric is in different layers pasted together; the micro- 

 scope must then be used to determine the source of the fibre. Even then the nao 

 or beat is, as in the present example,' different from those produced by au}^ of the 

 great number of beaters in this Museum, and long and painstaking examination 

 of the unusual impressions in the fabric will not always suggest the method ; then 

 must follow the teasing out of the fibre under the microscope to follow its devious 

 way through the fabric. With all this care the wish arises that one could onl}' 

 have seen one of these pieces beaten! 



405. A red-brown paikukui kapa of plain pepehi halua beat; found in the same burial 

 cave as the last number. With these was found a royal malo of ancient make, to 

 be described below with the Museum colledlion. No. 8842. 



406. A thin, oiled kapa of halua pupu beat; perhaps once a portion of a pa'u, but in 

 later times much more valued for sorcery methods. Source not known. 



Specimens of Kapa in the Bishop Museum. 



The numbers are those of the Museum Accessions. 



2310. Pa'u, oiled, single sheet, nao mole; 3.5X9 ft. 



2311. Pa'u, oiled, three sheets, kilohana figured, mole; 3.5X13 ft. 



2312. Pa'u, oiled, five sheets, kilohana figured, mole; 2.8X11 ft. 



2313. Pa'u, oiled, two sheets, kilohana figured, mole; 3.5X9 ft. 



2314. Pa'u, oiled, three sheets, kilohona figured, mole; 3.5X9 ft. 



2315. Pa'u, oiled, fragment of under sheet; 2.5X6.7 ft. 



2316. Pa'u, oiled, two sheets, kilohana figured all over with black and red stamps on 

 yellow, mole, under sheet halua; 3X9 ft. 



2317. Pa'u, oiled, kapa mahuna with'brown stripes, hoopai halua, fragment; 3.2X2.2 ft. 

 Queen Emma colledlion. 



