easily torn.[18]

[Footnote 18: The missionary account tells us, that the noble Women are
the principal cloth-makers. Among these people, it seems, that it is far
from being thought disgraceful, for the higher orders to engage in
domestic concerns and useful manufactures, "nor is it the least
disparagement for a chief to be found in the midst of his workmen
labouring with his own hands; but it would be reckoned a great disgrace
not to shew superior skill." Like the patriarchs of old, and the heroes
of Homer, these chiefs assist in the preparation of victuals for the
entertainment of their guests.--E.]

The colours with which they dye this cloth are principally red and
yellow. The red is exceedingly beautiful, and I may venture to say a
brighter and more delicate colour than any we have in Europe; that which
approaches nearest is our full scarlet, and the best imitation which Mr
Banks's natural history painter could produce, was by a mixture of
vermilion and carmine. The yellow is also a bright colour, but we have
many as good.

The red colour is produced by the mixture of the juices of two
vegetables, neither of which separately has the least tendency to that
hue. One is a species of fig called here _Matte_, and the other the
_Cordia Sebestina_, or _Etou_; of the fig the fruit is used, and of the
_Cordia_ the leaves.

The fruit of the fig is about as big as a rounceval pea, or very small
gooseberry; and each of them, upon breaking off the stalk very close,
produces one drop of a milky liquor, resembling the juice of our figs,
of which the tree is indeed a species. This liquor the women collect