THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
391 
nefs. The coarfer fort, of which they make very large 1777. 
pieces, does not receive the impreflion of any pattern. Of , 
the finer fort, they have fome that is ftriped, and chequered, 
and of other patterns differently coloured. But how thefe 
colours are laid on, I cannot fay, as I never faw any of this 
fort made. The cloth, in general, will refill water, for 
fome time; but that which has the ftrongeft glaze will re¬ 
fill longell. 
The manufacture next in confequence, and alfo within 
the department of the women, is that of their mats, which 
excel every thing I have feen at any other place, both as 
to their texture and their beauty. In particular, many of 
them are fo fuperior to thofe made at Otaheite, that they 
are not a bad article to carry thither, by way of trade. Of 
thefe mats, they have feven or eight different forts, for the 
purpofes of wearing or Beeping upon; and many are merely 
ornamental. The lafl are chiefly made from the tough, 
membraneous part of the flock of the plantain tree; thofe 
that they wear, from the pandanus, cultivated for that pur- 
pofe, and never buffered to Ihoot into a trunk; and the 
coarfer fort, which they Beep upon, from a plant called 
evarra . There are many other articles of lefs note, that 
employ the fpare time of their females ; as combs, of which 
they make vaft numbers; and little bafleets made of the 
fame fubflance as the mats, and others of the fibrous cocoa- 
nut hulk, either plain, or interwoven with fmall beads; 
but all, finifiied with fuch neatnefs and talle in the difpofi- 
tion of the various parts, that a llranger cannot help ad¬ 
miring their afliduity and dexterity. 
The province allotted to the men is, as might be expected, 
far more laborious and extenfive than that of the women. 
Agriculture, architecture, boat-building, filhing, and other 
, things 
