BARK OF TIIE CLOTH PLANT. 109 
bundles of young wauti, (a variety of the morus 
papyrifera,) 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 governor’s wife, and her female attendants, 
with about forty other women, under the pleasant 
shade of a beautiful clump of cordia or kou trees, 
employed in stripping off the bark from bundles of 
wauti 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 serrated 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 repaired to their 
dwellings. 
The wauti plant, of which the greater part of the 
cloth on this side of the island is made, is culti¬ 
vated with much care in their gardens of sugar¬ 
cane, plantain, &c. and whole plantations are 
sometimes appropriated 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 
