water which it contained when it was laid out, is either drained off or
evaporated, and the several fibres adhere together, so as that the whole
may be raised from the ground in one piece.

[Footnote 17: The reader will find additional information on this
subject, and on several others here treated, in some of the subsequent
accounts; from which, however, it seemed unadvisable to make quotations
at present. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the curious art of
dyeing, which the Otaheitans seem to practise with no small ingenuity,
has been much vestigated on philosophical principles since the date of
this publication. Modern chemistry has a right to boast of her
acquisitions in so very important a point of domestic science; but it
would be invidious and improper to specify them in this place.--E.]

It is then taken away, and laid upon the smooth side of a long piece of
wood, prepared for the purpose, and beaten, by the women servants, with
instruments about a foot long and three inches thick, made of a hard
wood which they call _Etoa_. The shape of this instrument is not unlike
a square razor strop, only that the handle is longer, and each of its
four sides or faces is marked, lengthways, with small grooves, or
furrows, of different degrees of fineness; those on one side being of a
width and depth sufficient to receive a small packthread, and the others
finer in a regular gradation, so that the last are not more than equal
to sewing silk.

They beat it first with the coarsest side of this mallet, keeping time
like our smiths; it spreads very fast under the strokes, chiefly however
in the breadth, and the grooves in the mallet mark it with the
appearance of threads; it is successively beaten with the other sides,
last with the finest, and is then fit for use. Sometimes, however, it is