174 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
that made with the bark of the bread-fruit and a mixture 
of the auti^ is of a light brown and sometimes fawn 
colour; but the finest and most valuable kind is called 
hobu. It is made principally^ and sometimes entirely, 
with the bark of the paper mulberry, and is bleached till 
it is beautifully white. This is chiefly worn by the 
females. 
It is astonishing that they should be able, by a pro¬ 
cess so simple, to make bales, containing sometimes two 
hundred yards of cloth, four yards wide ; the whole in 
one single piece, made with strips of bark seldom above 
four or five feet long, and, when spread open, not more 
than an inch and a half broad—^joined together simply 
by beating it with the grooved mallet. When sufficiently 
bleached and dried, it is folded along the whole length, 
rolled up into a bale, and covered with a piece of matting, 
—this is called ruru vehe» The wealth of a chief is 
sometimes estimated by the number of these covered 
bales which he possesses. The more valuable kinds 
of cloth are rolled up in the same way, covered with 
matting or cloth of an inferior kind, and generally sus¬ 
pended from some part of the roof of the chiefs house. 
The estimation in which it was held has been greatly 
diminished since they have become acquainted with 
European cloth, and large quantities are now seldom 
made. It is, however, still an article in general use 
among the lower classes of society, and the mother yet 
continues to beat her parure, or native pareu, for herself 
and children. 
A number of smaller pieces are still made, among 
which the tiputa is one of the most valuable. It is 
prepared by beating a number of layers of cloth to ¬ 
gether, to render it thicker than the common cloth : for 
