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.