her 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
into a small quantity of cocoa-nut water: To prepare a gill of cocoa-nut
water will require between three and four quarts of these little figs.
When a sufficient quantity is prepared, the leaves of the Etou are well
wetted in it, and then laid upon a plantain leaf, where they are turned
about till they become more and more flaccid, and then they are gently
squeezed, gradually increasing the pressure, but so as not to break
them; as the flaccidity increases, and they become spungy, they are
supplied with more of the liquor; in about five minutes the colour
begins to appear upon the veins of the leaves, and in about ten or a
little more, they are perfectly saturated with it: They are then
squeezed, with as much force as can be applied, and the liquor strained
at the same time that it is expressed.

For this purpose, the boys prepare a large quantity of the Moo, by
drawing it between their teeth, or two little sticks, till it is freed
from the green bark and the branny substance that lies under it, and a
thin web of the fibres onl