preliminary operation consists in gathering a
certain quantity of the young branches of the cloth-tree. The exterior
green bark being pulled off as worthless, there remains a slender fibrous
substance, which is carefully stripped from the stick, to which it closely
adheres. When a sufficient quantity of it has been collected, the various
strips are enveloped in a covering of large leaves, which the natives use
precisely as we do wrapping-paper, and which are secured by a few turns of
a line passed round them. The package is then laid in the bed of some
running stream, with a heavy stone placed over it, to prevent its being
swept away. After it has remained for two or three days in this state, it
is drawn out, and exposed for a short time to the action of the air, every
distinct piece being attentively inspected, with a view of ascertaining
whether it has yet been sufficiently affected by the operation. This is
repeated again and again, until the desired result is obtained.

When the substance is in a proper state for the next process, it betrays
evidences of incipient decomposition; the fibres are relaxed and softened,
and rendered perfectly malleable. The different strips are now extended,
one by one, in successive layers, upon some smooth surface--generally the
prostrate trunk of a cocoa-nut tree--and the heap thus formed is subjected,
at every new increase, to a moderate beating, with a sort of wooden
mallet, leisurely applied. The mallet is made of a hard heavy wood
resembling ebony, is about twelve inches in length, and perhaps two in
breadth, with a rounded handle at one end, and in shape is the exact
counterpart of one of our four-sided razor-strops. The flat surfaces of
the implement are marked with shallow parallel indentations, varying in
depth on the different sides, so as to be adapted to the several stages of
the operation. These marks produce the corduroy sort of stripes
descernible in the tappa in its finished state. After being beaten in the
manner I have described, the material soon becomes blended in one mass,
which, moistened occasionally with water, is at intervals hammered out, by
a kind of gold-beating process, to any degree of thinness required. In
this way the cloth is easily made to vary in strength and thickness, so as
to suit the numerous purposes to which it is applied.

When the operation last described has been concluded, the new-made tappa
is spread out on the grass to bleach and dry, and