DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 



99 



one place than another a thicker piece is laid over this place, when the next layer is 

 laid down. The cloth is left to dry during the night, and a part of the moisture 

 being evaporated, the several layers are found to adhere together so that the whole 

 mass may he lifted from the ground in one piece. It is then laid on a long smooth 

 plank of wood prepared for the purpose, and heaten with a wooden instrument ahout 

 a foot long and 3 inches square. Each of the four sides has longitudinal grooves of 

 different degrees of fineness, the depth and width of those on one side heing suffici- 

 ent to receive a small pack thread, the other sides heing liner in a regular gradation, 

 so that the grooves of the last would scarcely admit anything coarser than sewing 

 silk. A long handle is attached, and the cloth is first heaten with its coarser side, 

 and spreads very fast under the strokes ; it is then heaten with the other sides suc- 

 cessively, and is then considered fit for use. Sometimes, however, it is made still 

 thinner hy heating, after it has heen several times douhled, with the finest side of 



Leaf of Bro'ussonetia papyrifera. 



the mallet, and it can thus he attenuated until it becomes as fine as muslin. Should 

 the cloth break under this process, it is easily repaired by laying on a piece of bark, 

 which is made to adhere by means of a glutinous substance made from the arrow- 

 root, and this is done with such nicety that the break can hardly be detected. The 

 King of the Friendly Islands had a piece made which was 120 feet wide and 2 miles 

 long, a part of which is now in the Ke w Mus. 



W. D. Alexander makes statements regarding the manufacture and uses of the 

 Kapa cloth of the Hawaiian Islanders as follows: "This was made of the bark of 

 the paper mulberry or wauke (Broussonetia papyrifera) and of the mamake (Pipturus 

 albidus), which were cultivated with much care. Its manufacture was left entirely 

 to the women, who peeled off strips of the bark and scraped off the outer coat with 

 shells. After being soaked a Avhile in water each strip was laid upon a smooth log 

 and beaten with a square-grooved mallet of hard wood until it resembled thick. 



