NATIVE CLOTH COOKING. 155 
sweet potatoes, and such humble fare as has 
been prepared by the females of the family. 
For the women have their daily tasks to 
perform ; some preparing the ground, taking 
up yams, and doing other work requiring 
diligence and strength. There being no 
servants, the wives or daughters make and 
mend the clothes, and attend to all the 
requisite household affairs. They also manu- 
facture tappa, or native cloth, from the bark 
of the " anti," or paper-mulberry, which is 
rolled up, and soaked in water, and then 
beaten out with wooden mallets, and spread 
forth to dry. The author has in his posses- 
sion a piece of beautifully wrought white 
tappa, given him by Mrs. Hey wood, and 
bearing a label, which states that it was 
made by the wife of Fletcher Christian, from 
the bark of the paper-mulberry-tree. The 
piece from which this portion was taken, was 
given by her, when at a very advanced age, 
for Peter s wife, to Captain Jenkin Jones, 
when he visited the island, in Her Majesty's 
ship Curagoa, in 1841. 
The cooking is performed by the females. 
Their cooking-places are apart from their 
