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Working with an engraved
beater, the expert in the foreground embosses a water-mark pattern into a sheet
of moist kapa, dyed yellow with 'olena (tumeric). Her kapa wrap
is colored a soft purple with a dye made by mixing lime (from burnt coral) with
the juice of 'uki'uki berries, and stamped in black with the sea urchin
(wana) design. She wears a head lei of 'ilima blossoms and a lei
of polished kukui nuts.
At left, raw bark is given its first
beating with a cylindrical beater (hohoa) upon a stone anvil
(kua). A woman is stripping bark from a wauke (paper mulberry)
sapling, as another flattens it by rolling. Two women lift a sheet of
kapa from a dye bath. A girl at upper right prunes branching shoots from
wauke saplings before their growth flaws the bark. Another scrapes
strips of bark with a sharp shell.
At middle right, pigments are
being ground in a stone mortar. Roots and bark of various plants were used in
dyes. Bowls contain a lump of red earth and burnt coral. A large sheet of dyed
kapa is being printed with geometric designs carved into stamps of
bamboo. Black ink made from the soot of burnt kukui nuts, and red made
from red earth, are applied to the printing sticks with brushes made from the
dried keys of pandanus fruit.
Page 89, Ancient Hawaii
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Link to mini-tour of Old Hawaii