POL YNESIA N RESE ARC H ES. 
175 
the outside layer, they select a stout branch of the auti, 
or bread-fruit, about an inch and a half in diameter: this 
they prepare with great attention, and, having beaten it 
to the usual width and length, which is about ten feet 
long and three feet wide, they fix it on the outside, and 
attach it to the others by rubbing a small portion of 
arrow-root on the inner side, before beating it together. 
The tiputa of the Tahitians corresponds exactly with 
the poncho of the South Americans. It is rather longer, 
but is worn in the same manner, having a hole cut in the 
centre, through which, when worn, the head is passed; 
while the garment hangs down over the shoulders, breast, 
and back, usually reaching, both before and behind, as 
low as the knees. Next to the tiputa, the ahufara is a 
general article of dress. These are either square like a 
shawl, or resemble a scarf. They are sometimes larger, 
and correspond with a counterpane more than a shawl, 
and are always exceedingly splendid and rich in their 
colours. 
The natives of the Society Islands have a variety of 
vegetable dyes, and display more taste in the variations 
and patterns of the cloth, than in any other use of colours. 
Much of the common cloth is dyed either with the bark 
of the aito, casuarina, or tiairi, aleurites. This gives it a 
kind of dark red or chocolate colour, and is supposed to 
add to its durability. The leaves of the arum are some¬ 
times used, but brilliant red and yellow are their favourite 
hues: The former, which they call mati, is prepared by 
mixing the milky juice of the small berry of the mati, 
ficus prolixa, with the leaves of the tou, a species of cor- 
dia. When the dye is prepared by this combination, it 
is absorbed on the fibres of a kind of rush, and dried 
for use. It produces a most brilliant scarlet dye, 
