402 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
instead of pasteboard^ which were fastened to the sides ; 
the edges of the leaves were then cut with a knife 3 and 
the book used in this state daily^ while the owner was 
searching for a skin or a piece of leather, with which to 
cover it for more effectual preservation. This was the 
most difficult article to procure, and many books were 
used in this state for many months. 
Leather was now the article in greatest requisition 
among all classes; and the poor animals, that had hereto¬ 
fore lived in undisturbed ease and freedom, were hunted 
solely for their skins. The printing-office was converted 
into a tanyard 3 old canoes, filled with lime-water, were 
prepared 5 and all kinds of skins brought to have the 
hair extracted, and the oily matters dissipated. It was 
quite amusing to see goats’ dogs’ and cats’ skins 
collected to be prepared for book-covers. Sometimes they 
procured the tough skin of a large dog, or an old goat, 
with long shaggy matted hair and beard attached to it, or 
the thin skin of a wild kitten taken in the mountains. As 
soon as the natives had seen how they were prepared, 
which was simply by extracting the hair and the oil, 
they did this at their own houses 5 and in walking 
through the district at this period, no object was more 
common than a skin stretched on a frame, and suspended 
on the branch of a tree, to dry in the sun. 
All the books, hitherto in circulation among the 
people, had been gratuitously distributed 3 but when 
the first portion of Scripture was finished, as it was 
a larger book than had yet been published, it was 
thought best to receive a small equivalent for it, lest 
the people should expect that books afterwards printed 
would be given also, and lest, from the circumstance 
of their receiving them without payment, they should be 
