142 SAMOAN GROUP. 



used is made of bone, sharp like the teeth of a comb, and requires but 

 a slight blow to enter the skin. The part tattooed on the males is from 

 the loins to the thighs, but the women have only a few lines on their 

 hands and bodies. 



The articles of which their dress is composed are manufactured by 

 the females, who are exceedingly industrious. The common cloth or 

 tapa is made of the inner bark of the paper-mulberry, which is culti- 

 vated for the purpose in nurseries. It is cut when the stem is about one 

 and a half inches in diameter ; the inner bark is separated and washed 

 in water, which deprives it of some of its gum ; it is then beaten until 

 the adhesion of the fibres forms many of the strips into a single mass. 

 The mallet used for this purpose is about two inches square, and about 

 fourteen inches long, with a handle at one end ; two of its faces are 

 grooved and the other two smooth ; the bark is laid on a board, and 

 struck with the mallet in a direction at right angles with its fibres ; the 

 grooved sides are used to spread out the fibres, and the smooth ones to 

 knit them together. The grooves also give a thready appearance to 

 the surface. 



This method differs from that practised at Tahiti, where the bark is 

 beaten with a smaller mallet, upon a spring-board ; and the tapa made 

 here is of inferior quality. The tapa is often printed with colours in 

 patterns. This is performed in a mode similar to that practised in 

 Europe before the introduction of copper rollers. Instead of engraved 

 blocks, they form tablets, about as thick as binder's boards, of pieces 

 of large cocoa-nut leaves, by sewing them together. One side of the 

 tablet is kept smooth and even, and upon this cocoa-nut fibres are 

 sewed so as to form the required pattern, which is of course raised 

 upon the surface of the tablet. These tablets are wet with a piece of 

 cloth well soaked in the dye, after which the tapa, which for this pur- 

 pose is well bleached and beautifully white, is laid upon them and 

 pressed into close contact. The dye is made from herbs and roots, and 

 is of various colours. 



The women also manufacture the mats. Some of these have been 

 mentioned in describing the dress of the natives : the finest kinds are 

 made of the inner bark of the paper-mulberry ; those of coarser texture 

 of the leaves of the pandanus, which are nicely scraped and bleached. 

 The mats are all made by hand, and by interlacing the fibres ; one of 

 the finest description will require the industrious labour of a year. 



Among the mats are some of as fine a texture and as soft as if made 

 of cotton. These are rarely or never manufactured at present, and are 

 solely possessed by the chiefs, in whose family they are handed down 

 from father to son, as heir-lcoms. They are considered as their 



