MATERIALS FOR BOOKBINDING. 229 
to the king, who received it with high satisfaction. 
The queen and chiefs were next supplied, and 
preparations made for meeting the demands of the 
people. In order to preserve the books, it was 
deemed inexpedient to give them into the hands 
of the natives, either unbound, or merely covered 
as pamphlets. We had only a small quantity of 
mill-boards, and it was necessary to increase them 
on the spot; a large quantity of native cloth, 
made with the bark of a tree, was therefore pur¬ 
chased, and females employed to beat a number of 
layers or folds together, usually from seven to ten. 
These were after submitted to the action of a 
powerful screw-press, and, when gradually dried, 
formed a good stiff pasteboard. For their binding, 
the few sheep-skins brought from England were 
cut into slips for the backs and corners, and a 
large bundle of old newspapers dyed, for covers to 
the sides. In staining these papers, they were 
covered over with the juice of the stems of the 
mountain plantain, or fei . The young plants 
brought from the mountains were generally two or 
three inches in diameter at the lower end. The 
root was cut off above the part that had been in 
the ground, and the stem being then fixed over a 
vessel, half a pint sometimes of thick purple juice 
exuded from it,. This was immediately spread 
upon the paper, imparting to the sheet, when 
dried in the sun, a rich glossy purple colour, which 
remained as long as the paper lasted. If lime- 
juice was sprinkled upon it, a beautiful and deli¬ 
cate pink was produced. When the juice of the 
fei was allowed to remain till the next day, the 
liquor became much thinner, assumed a brownish 
red tinge, and imparted only a slight colour to 
the paper. 
