HOW TAPA IS MADE.
This volume of Hawaiian Legends is bound in genuine tapa, a cloth—or more properly speaking a strong paper—made by hand from the inner bark of the wild mulberry. Briefly, the process of manufacture is as follows:
When full of glutinous sap, the bark of the mulberry is stripped and steeped in running water until the outer layer is softened. This is scraped away and the inner bark beaten with corrugated paddles of palm wood until strips two or three inches broad are widened to ten or twelve inches.
The edges of these strips are then pasted together with a strong vegetable glue and laminated with more beating. So skillfully is this done that it is impossible to detect the lines of jointure.
The tapa used in binding this book is of the stout, heavy grade; but that used for clothing and scarfs is often as sheer as fine muslin.
Tapa making is confined entirely to the women, men never occupying themselves with any of its processes.
GLOSSARY
Hawaiian words may be easily pronounced correctly by using the Spanish alphabet. There are no silent letters, and all syllables are stressed equally.