Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/206

148 short time. But I believe that the finest of their hoboo does not attain either its whiteness or softness until it has been worn some time, then washed and beaten over again with the very finest beaters.

Of this thin cloth they have almost as many different sorts as we have of linen, distinguishing it according to its fineness and the material of which it is made. Each piece is from nine to fifteen yards in length, and about two and a half broad. It serves them for clothes in the day and bedding at night. When, by use, it is sufficiently worn and becomes dirty, it is carried to the river and washed, chiefly by letting it soak in a gentle stream, fastened to the bottom by a stone, or, if it is very dirty, by wringing it and squeezing it gently. Several of the pieces of cloth so washed are then laid on each other, and being beaten with the coarsest side of the beater, adhere together, and become a cloth as thick as coarse broad-cloth, than which nothing can be more soft or delicious to the touch. This softness, however, is not produced immediately after the beating: it is at first stiff as if newly starched, and some parts not adhering together as well as others it looks ragged, and also varies in thickness according to any faults in the cloth from which it was made.

To remedy this is the business of the mistress and the principal women of the family, who seem to amuse themselves with this, and with dyeing it, as our English women do with making caps, ruffles, etc. In this way they spend the greater part of their time. Each woman is furnished with a knife made of a piece of bamboo cane, to which they give an edge by splitting it diagonally with their nails. This is sufficient to cut any kind of cloth or soft substance with great ease. A certain quantity of a paste made of the root of a plant which serves them also for food, and is called by them Pea (Chaitæa tacca ), is also required. With the knife they cut off any ragged edges or ends which may not have been sufficiently fixed down by the beating, and with the paste they fasten down others which are less ragged, and