4. Pahoa Verevere ki te Repo.

Here the colour scheme is black.

Black Dye. The plants used were the iron wood and the candle-nut.

The inner bark of the caudle-nut tree is scraped from the stripped bark with a shell, put in a wooden bowl and pounded. The sap was then expressed through a taka of plaited hau bark, exactly similar to that used in the preparation of cocoanut oil. This liquid is called vavai hiri and will keep well in a cocoanut or gourd container until required.

The inner bark of the iron wood is treated in a similar manner. The two component parts of the dye are kept separately and are used as follows:—

Treatment. The pahoa cloth is soaked in the vavai hiri and left until it turns reddish in colour. It is then dried. When thoroughly dry it is soaked in the iron wood liquid which turns the cloth dark. It is again dried.

It is now cooked in an earth oven. The oven is first lined with the bark of the banana stem, pihoro, and above that is spread a layer of candle-nut leaves. The cloth is placed above and covered over. When judged to be cooked, the expert opens sufficient of the covering to procure a piece of cloth, which is tasted. From the taste it can readily be known whether the garment is sufficiently cooked. When cooked, maoa, the cloth is removed and dried in the sun till it is hard, maro.

When dry and hard the cloth is pressed down in the mud of a taro swamp. This intensifies the black colour. It is kept in the mud just sufficiently long for the cloth to page 83acquire the right hue of black. It is then taken out, washed and dried. The pahoa has been subjected to treatment with mud, repo, and hence the somewhat long name of pahoa verevere ki te repo.