148 GENERAL ACCOUNT OF SOUTH SEA ISLANDS cu. vir 
short time. But I believe that the finest of their hoboo 
does not attain either its whiteness or softness until it has 
been worn some time, then washed and beaten over again 
with the very finest beaters. 
Of this thin cloth they have almost as many different 
sorts as we have of linen, distinguishing it according to its 
fineness and the material of which it is made. Each piece 
is from nine to fifteen yards in length, and about two and a 
half broad. It serves them for clothes in the day and 
bedding at night. When, by use, it is sufficiently worn and 
becomes dirty, it is carried to the river and washed, chiefly 
by letting it soak in a gentle stream, fastened to the bottom 
by a stone, or, if it is very dirty, by wringing it and squeez- 
ing it gently. Several of the pieces of cloth so washed are 
then laid on each other, and being beaten with the coarsest 
side of the beater, adhere together, and become a cloth as 
thick as coarse broad-cloth, than which nothing can be more 
soft or delicious to the touch. This softness, however, is not 
produced immediately after the beating: it is at first stiff 
as if newly starched, and some parts not adhering together 
as well as others it looks ragged, and also varies in thick- 
ness according to any faults in the cloth from which it was 
made. 
To remedy this is the business of the mistress and the 
principal women of the family, who seem to amuse them- 
selves with this, and with dyeing it, as our English women 
do with making caps, ruffles, etc. In this way they spend 
the greater part of their time. Each woman is furnished 
with a knife made of a piece of bamboo cane, to which 
they give an edge by splitting it diagonally with their nails. 
This is sufficient to cut any kind of cloth or soft substance 
with great ease. A certain quantity of a paste made of the 
root of a plant which serves them also for food, and is called 
by them Pea (Chaitea tacca’), is also required. With, the 
knife they cut off any ragged edges or ends which may not 
have been sufficiently fixed down by the beating, and with 
the paste they fasten down others which are less ragged, and 
1 Tacca pinnatifida, Forst. 
