CLOTH MANUFACTURE. 
181 
It is made principally, and sometimes entirely, from 
the bark of the paper mulberry, and is bleached 
till beautifully white. This is chiefly worn by the 
females. 
It is astonishing that they should be able, by a 
process so simple, to make bales, containing some¬ 
times 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 
them with the grooved mallet. When sufficiently 
bleached and dried, the cloth is folded along the 
whole length, rolled up into a bale, and covered 
with a piece of matting—this is called rum 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 suspended from some 
part of the roof of the chief’s house. The estima¬ 
tion in which it was held has been greatly dimin¬ 
ished 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 valu¬ 
able. It is prepared by beating a number of 
layers of cloth together, to render it thicker than 
the common cloth: for 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 
