350 A MISSION TO VITI. 
dress. The manufacture of native cloth is entirely left 
to women of places not inhabited by great chiefs, pro- 
bably because the noise caused by the beating out of 
the cloth is disliked by courtly ears. The rhythm of 
Tapa-beating imparts therefore as thoroughly a country 
air to a place in Fiji as that of threshing corn does to 
our European villages. The Masi tree is propagated by 
cuttings, and grown about two or three feet apart, in 
plantations resembling nurseries. For the purposes of 
making cloth it is not allowed to become higher than 
about twelve feet, and about one inch in diameter. The 
bark, taken off in as long strips as possible, is steeped 
in water, scraped with a conch shell, and then mace- 
rated. In this state it is placed on a log of wood, and 
beaten with a mallet (Ike), three sides of which have 
longitudinal grooves, and the fourth a plain surface. 
Two strips of Tapa are always beaten into one with the 
view of strengthening the fibres—an operation increas- 
ing the width of the cloth at the expense of its length. 
It is easy to join pieces together, the sap of the fibres 
being slightly glutinous; and in order to make the 
junction as perfect and durable as possible, a paste is 
prepared of arrowroot, or a glue of the viscid berries 
of the Tou (Cordia Sprengelit, De Cand.). I have seen 
pieces of native cloth, intended for mosquito curtains 
and screens, which were nearly one hundred feet long 
and thirty feet broad. Most of the cloth worn is pure 
white, being bleached in the sun as we bleach linen; 
but printed Tapa is also, though not so frequently, seen, 
whilst that used for curtains is always coloured. Their 
mode of printing is by means of raised forms of little 
