94 
MISSIONARY TO$R 
dies of young wauti, (a variety of the morns papyri - 
/era,) from which we infer that this is the season for 
cloth-making in this part of the island. 
This morning, the 17th, we perceived Keoua, the go¬ 
vernor’s wife, and her female attendants, with about 
forty other women, under the pleasant shade of a beau¬ 
tiful clump of cordia or kou trees, employed in strip¬ 
ping off the bark from bundles of ivauti sticks, for the 
purpose of making it into cloth. The sticks were 
generally from six to ten feet long, and about an inch 
in diameter at the thickest end. They first cut the 
bark, the whole length of the stick, with a sharp ser¬ 
rated shell, and having carefully peeled it off, rolled it 
into small coils, the inner bark being outside. In this 
state it is left some time, to make it flat and smooth. 
Keoua not only worked herself, but appeared to take 
the superintendence of the whole party. Whenever a 
fine piece of bark was found, it was shewn to her, and 
put aside to be manufactured into wairiirii, or some 
other particular cloth. With lively chat and cheerful 
song, they appeared to beguile the hours of labour 
until noon, when having finished their work, they re¬ 
paired to their dwellings. 
The wauti plant, of which the greater part of the 
cloth on this side of the island is made, is cultivated 
with much care in their gardens of sugar-cane, plan¬ 
tain, &c. and whole plantations are sometimes devoted 
exclusively to its growth. Slips about a foot long are 
planted nearly two feet apart, in long rows, four or six 
feet asunder. Two or three shoots rise from most of 
the slips, and grow till they are six or twelve feet high, 
according to the richness of the soil, or the kind of 
cloth for which they are intended. Any small branches 
