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half worn, and which having been worn by cleanly people is not soild enough to require washing; of this it is sufficient to paste the Edges together, which is done with the same paste. This thick cloth, made in either of these ways, is usd either for the garment calld Maro, which is a long peice passd between the legs and round the waste that serves instead of breeches; or the Tebuta as it is calld, a garment usd equally by both sexes instead of a Coat or gown, which exactly resembles that worn by the inhabitants of Peru and Chili that is calld by the Spanyards Poncho.
The cloth itself both thick and thin resembles most the finest cottons in softness especialy in which article it even exceeds them. Its tenderness (for it tears by the smallest accident) makes it very impossible that it can ever be usd in Europe; indeed it is properly adapted to a hot climate; I usd it to sleep in very often in the Islands and always found it far cooler than any English cloth, and that it much prevented perspiration or else, by drying it up immediately, the disagreable sensation of it.
Having thus describd their manner of making the Cloth I shall proceed to their method of dying it. They have principaly two Colours in which
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol.1) 375, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-130.html