that they had long been of this accurfed fociety, that they belonged to it at that time, and that several of their children had been put to death. But I must not conclude my account of the domestic life of these people without mentioning their perfonal cleanliness. If that which leffens the good of life and increases the evil is vice, furely cleanliness is a virtue: the want of it tends to deftroy both beauty and health, and mingles difguft with our beft pleasures. The natives of Otaheite, both men and women, constantly wash their whole bodies in running wa ter three times every day; once as foon as they rise in the morning, once at noon, and again before they fleep at night, whether the sea or river is near them or at a diftance. I have already obferved, that they wafh not only the mouth, but the hands at their meals, almoft between every morfel; and their clothes, as well as their perfons, are kept without spot or ftain; fo that in a large company of thefe people, nothing is fuffered but heat, which, perhaps, is more than can be faid of the politeft affembly in Europe. 1769. 1769. Manufac. tures. CHA P. XVIII. Of the Manufactures, Boats, and Navigation of Otaheite. IF F neceffity is the mother of invention, it cannot be fuppofed to have been much exerted where the liberality of Nature has rendered the diligence of Art almost fuperfluous; yet there are many inftances both of ingenuity and labour among these people, which, confidering the want of metal for tools, do honour to both. Their principal manufacture is their cloth, in the making and dying of which I think there are fome particulars which may inftruct even the artificers of Great Britain, and for that reafon my description will be more minute. Their cloth is of three kinds; and it is made of the bark of three different trees, the Chinese paper mulberry, the bread-fruit tree, and the tree which resembles the wild fig-tree of the West Indies. The finest and whiteft is made of the paper mulberry, Aouta; this is worn chiefly by the principal people, and when it is dyed red takes a better colour. A fecond fort, inferior in whiteness and softness, is made of the bread-fruit 6 tree, tree, Ooroo, and worn chiefly by the inferior people; and a third of the tree that resembles the fig, which is coarse and harsh, and of the colour of the darkest brown paper: this, though it is lefs pleafing both to the eye and the touch, is the most valuable, because it refifts water, which the other two forts will not. Of this, which is the most rare as well as the most useful, the greater part is perfumed, and worn by the Chiefs as a morning dress. All these trees are propagated with great care, particularly the mulberry, which covers the largest part of the cultivated land, and is not fit for ufe after two or three years growth, when it is about fix or eight feet high, and fomewhat thicker than a man's thumb; its excellence is to be thin, straight, tall, and without branches: the lower leaves, therefore, are carefully plucked off, with their germs, as often as there is any appearance of their producing a branch. But though the cloth made of these three trees is different, it is all manufactured in the fame manner; I shall, therefore, describe the process only in the fine fort, that is made of the mulberry. When the trees are of a proper fize, they are drawn up, and stripped of their branches, after which the roots and tops are cut off; the bark of these rods being then flit up longitudinally is eafily drawn off, and, when a proper quantity E 3 1769. 1769. quantity has been procured, it is carried down to fome running water, in which it is deposited to foak, and fecured from floating away by heavy ftones when it is fuppofed to be fufficiently foftened, the women fervants go down to the brook, and stripping themselves, fit down in the water, to feparate the inner bark from the green part on the outfide; to do this they place the under fide upon a flat fmooth board, and with the fhell which our dealers call Tyger's tongue, Tellina gargadia, fcrape it very carefully, dipping it continually in the water till nothing remains but the fine fibres of the inner coat. Being thus prepared in the afternoon, they are spread out upon plantain leaves in the evening; and in this part of the work there ap pears to be fome difficulty, as the mistrefs of the family always fuperintends the doing of it: they are placed in lengths of about eleven or twelve yards, one by the fide of another, till they are about a foot broad, and two or three layers are alfo laid one upon the other: care is taken that the cloth fhall be in all parts of an equal thicknefs, fo that if the bark happens to be thinner in any particular part of one layer than the reft, a piece that is fomewhat thicker is picked out to be laid over it in the next. In this ftate it remains till the morning, when great part of the water which it contained when it was laid out, is either drained off or evaporated, and the several fibres adhere together, fo as that the whole may be raised from the ground in one piece. It is then taken away, and laid upon the fmooth fide of a long piece of wood, prepared for the purpose, and beaten by the women fervants, with inftruments about a foot long and three inches thick, made of a hard wood which they call Etoa. The fhape of this instrument is not unlike a fquare razor ftrop, only that the. handle is longer, and each of its four fides or faces is marked, lengthways, with small grooves, or furrows, of different degrees of fineness; those on one fide being of a width and depth fuffici-. ent to receive a small packthread, and the others finer in a regular gradation, fo that the last are not more than equal to sewing filk. They beat it firft with the coarseft fide of this mallet, keeping time like our fmiths; it spreads very faft under the strokes, chiefly however in the breadth, and the grooves in the mallet mark it with the appearance of threads; it is fucceffively beaten with the other fides, laft with the fineft, and is then fit for ufe. Sometimes, however, it is made ftill thinner, by beating it with the finest fide of the mallet, after it has been several times doubled: it is then called Hoboo, and is almost as thin as a muflin; it becomes very white by being bleached in the air, but is made 1769. |
