110 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, 
that may sprout out from the side of the long 
shoot, are carefully plucked off, and sometimes the 
bud at the top of the plant is pulled out, to cause 
an increase in its size. Occasionally they are two 
years growing, and seldom reach the size at which 
they are fit for use, in less than twelve or even 
eighteen months, when they are cut off near the 
ground, the old roots being left, to produce shoots 
another year. 
The bark, when stripped off and rolled up, as 
described above, is left several days; when, on 
being unrolled, it appears flat. The outer bark is 
then taken off, generally by scraping it with a 
large shell, and the inner bark, of which the cloth 
is made, is occasionally laid in water, to extract 
the resinous substances it may contain. Each 
piece of bark is then taken singly, and laid across 
a piece of wood, twelve or eighteen feet long, six 
inches square, smooth on the top, but having a 
groove on the under side, and is beaten with a 
square mallet of hard heavy wood, about a foot 
in length, and two inches wide; three sides are 
carved in grooves or ribs, the other into squares, 
in order that one mallet may answer for the dif¬ 
ferent kinds of cloth they are accustomed to manu¬ 
facture. 
Various sorts of cloth are made with this plant* 
some remarkably fine and even; that which has 
been beaten with a mallet, carved in different 
patterns, much resembles muslin at first sight, 
while that made with a grooved mallet appears, 
until closely examined, something like dimity. 
There are other kinds, very thick and tough, which 
look like wash-leather; but the most common soif 
is the paii, worn round the waists of the females 
To make this, a piece of bark is beaten till it is 
