er.
The outer rough bark was scraped off with a shell, and the inner
rind slightly beaten and allowed to ferment. It was then beaten over
a tree-trunk with mallets of iron-wood about eighteen inches long,
grooved coarsely on one side and more finely on the other. The
fibers were so closely interwoven by this beating that in the
finished cloth one could not guess the process of making. When
finished, the fabric was bleached in the sun to a dazzling white,
and from it the Marquesans of old wrought wondrous garments.

For their caps they made remarkably fine textures, open-meshed,
filmy as gauze, which confined their abundant black hair, and to
which were added flowers, either natural or beautifully preserved in
wax. Their principal garment, the _cahu_, was a long and flowing
piece of the paper-cloth, of firmer texture, dyed in brilliant colors,
or of white adorned with tasteful patterns. This hung from the
shoulders, where it was knotted on one shoulder, leaving one arm and
part of the breast exposed. Much individual taste was expressed in
the wearing of this garment; sometimes the knot was on one shoulder,
sometimes on the other, or it might be brought low on the chest,
leaving the shoulders and arms bare, or thrown behind to expose the
charms of a well-formed back or a slender waist. Beneath it they
wore a _pareu_, which passed twice around the waist and hung to the
calves of the legs.

Clean and neat as these garments always were, shining in the sun,
leaving the body free to know the joys of sun and air and swift,
easy motion, it would be difficult to imagine a more graceful,
beautiful, modest, and comfortable manner of dressing.

For dyeing these garments in all the hues that fancy dictated, the
women used the juices of herb and tree. Candlenut-bark gave a rich
chocolate hue; scarlet was obtained from the _mati_-berries mixed
with the leaves of the _tou_. Yellow came from the inner bark of the
root of the _morinda citrifolia_. Hibiscus flowers or delicate ferns
were dipped in these colors and impressed on the _tapas_ in elegant
designs.

The garments were virtually indestructible. Did a dress need
repairing, the edges of the rent were moistened and beaten together,
or a handful of fiber was beaten in as a patch. Often for fishermen
the _tapas_ were made water-proof by added thicknesses and the
employment of gums, and waterproof cloth for wrappings was made
thick and impervious to rain as the oilcloth it resemble