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may be lifted from the ground without dropping in peices. It is then taken away by the women servants who beat it in the following manner: they lay it upon a long peice of wood one side of which is very Even and flat, which side is put under the Cloth; as many women then as they can muster or as can work at the board begin; each is furnishd with a battoon made of a very hard wood calld by the natives Etoa (Casuarina equisetifolia) these are about a foot long and square with a handle; on each of the 4 faces of the square are many small furrows
of as many different fineness, in the first or coarsest not more than [15] in the finest one [56] which cover the whole face of the side. With the coarsest then they begin, keeping time with their strokes in the same manner as smiths or Anchor smiths, and continue until the Cloth which extends itself very fast under these strokes shews by the too great thinness of the Grooves which are made in it that a finer side of the beater is requisite; in the same manner they proceed to the finest side with which they finish, unless the Cloth is to be of that very fine sort which they call Hoboo which is almost as thin as muslin. For the making of
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol.1) 372, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-127.html