POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
135 
jacket cut into strips about two inches wide, was gi’eatly 
esteemed. Next to this, ribands of native cloth, dyed 
with showy colours, were employed | while others used 
a string of the bark from a branch of the purau, with 
the outer rind scraped off, the inner bark washed and 
bleached, passed round the bonnet, and tied under the 
chin. 
Trimmings are not so scarce now as formerly, but 
the supply taken is still inadequate to the requirements 
of the people, among whom bonnets and hats are now 
so common, that before I left the Leeward Islands, 
scarce a man, woman, or child was to be seen out 
of doors without one—many of them possessing two, 
and sometimes three or four. 
They are made entirely by the females, who manu¬ 
facture not only for themselves, their husbands, and 
their children, but in some of the stations, several have 
formed themselves into a kind of society, for the pur¬ 
pose of making bonnets for the poor and the aged, who 
are unable to make for themselves. They have in¬ 
creased not only in number, but in variety of shape 
and material. The bonnets are now either sewn to¬ 
gether, or woven throughout, after the manner of Leg¬ 
horns, and are made not only with the leaves of the 
mau, and the bark of the purau, but of the fine 
white layers of the inside of the plantain stalk, the 
leaf of the sugar-cane, and a strong and beautiful 
species of fine grass. 
It may perhaps be supposed, by those who are un¬ 
acquainted with the circumstances, that the wives of 
the Missionaries have not acted judiciously in intro¬ 
ducing and cherishing a desire for dress and a love of 
finery. It may be thought that it has a tendency to 
