146 GENERAL ACCOUNT OF SOUTH SEA ISLANDS cu. vi 
third, which is by far the rarest, is made a coarse, harsh 
cloth of the colour of the deepest brown paper: it is the 
only one they have that at all resists water, and is much 
valued; most of it is perfumed and used by the very great 
people as a morning dress. These three trees are cultivated 
with much care, especially the former, which covers the 
largest part of their cultivated land. Young plants 
of one or two years’ growth only are used; their great 
merit is that they are thin, straight, tall, and without 
branches; to prevent the growth of these last they pluck 
off with great care all the lower leaves and their germs, as 
often as there is any appearance of a tendency to produce 
branches. 
Their method of manufacturing the bark is the same for 
all the sorts: one description of it will therefore be sufficient. 
The thin cloth they make thus: when the trees have grown 
to a sufficient size they are drawn up, and the roots and 
tops cut off and stripped of their leaves; the best of the 
aoute are in this state about three or four feet long and as 
thick as a man’s finger, but the coroo are considerably 
larger. The bark of these rods is then slit up longitudinally, 
and in this manner drawn off the stick; when all are 
stripped, the bark is carried to some brook or running water, 
into which it is laid to soak with stones upon it, and in this 
situation it remains some days. When sufficiently soaked 
the women servants go down to the river, and stripping 
themselves, sit down in the water and scrape the pieces of 
bark, holding them against a flat smooth board, with the 
shell called by the English shell merchants Tiger’s tongue 
(Tellina gargadia), dipping it continually in the water until 
all the outer green bark is rubbed and washed away, and 
nothing remains but the very fine fibres of the inner bark. 
This work is generally finished in the afternoon: in the 
evening the pieces are spread out upon plantain leaves, and in 
doing this I suppose there is some difficulty, as the mistress 
of the family generally presides over the operation. All 
that I could observe was that they laid them in two or 
three layers, and seemed very careful to make them every- 
