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not adhering together as well as others it looks ragged, and is also of various thicknesses wherever any faults were in the Cloth from whence it was made; to remedy this is the business of the mistress of the family and principal women of it, who in this, and dying, seem to amuse themselves as our English women do in making Caps, ruffles, &c; and in this they spend the greatest part of their time. They are furnishd with each a k[n]ife made of a peice of Bamboo cane, to which they make, by splitting it diagonally with their nails, an edge which with great ease cuts any kind of cloth or soft substance; and a certain quantity of a Paste made of the root of a Plant which serves them also for food, and is calld by them Pea (Chaitaea Tacca): with the former they cut off any ragged edges or ends which may not have been sufficiently fixd down by the Beating; and with the Paste they fasten down others which are less ragged, and also put on patches upon any part which may be thinner than the rest, generaly finishing their work, if intended for the best, by pasting a compleat covering of the finest thin Cloth or Hoboo over the whole. They make the thick Cloth also sometimes of thin, only
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol.1) 374, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-129.html