Clothing not Made of Bark Cloth.

Material other than bark cloth did not enter seriously into the clothing of Aitutaki. Bark cloth furnished the every-day clothing, but for rough work or for dances, kilts were made from the leaves of the Dracaena terminalis (ti) and the cocoanut, and from the inner bark of the hau. They all come under the name of pareu.

The leaves are about 18 inches long and 3 inches wide. The thick fleshy midribs are cut through near the base of the leaf in such a manner with the thumb nail that when they are stripped off, thin strips of the stalk are left attached to the leaf. Fig. 75a and 75b. The stalk ends of the leaves are then plaited into a three-ply braid. Each leaf is added from below on the under side of the braid. Fig. 75c. On completing the required width of the kilt, the ends are plaited on for a short distance, divided into two lots, and tied with a reef knot.

The three-ply braid not only serves to attach the leaves together but also to attach the kilt round the waist. The actual appearance is shown in Fig. 74. These kilts are quickly made and cast aside after their temporary use is ended. The golden colour of the partly dried leaves gives a pleasing effect in the dances in which they are mostly used. The old name for this kill is titi. The same name is used in Samoa, where Turner¹ says it was the only page 87garment that either sex thought necessary during the day. Stokes² described it in Rapa. It probably has as wide a distribution as the plant.

Cocoanut Leaf Kilt, pareu nikau. A similar kilt was made from the leaflets of the cocoanut. My informants summed up the technique in the words, "Ka toetoe te rau, ka hiri." The leaflets were split with the thumb nail on either side of the midribs, torn off and the butt ends plaited with a three-ply braid. Its use was also temporary.

Hibiscus Bast Kilt, pareu kiri hau. Here we have another use for the bast of the Hibiscus tiliaceus, hau. Long thin strips of the inner bark, which splits readily after soaking in sea water, are attached to special cords with the effect shown in the two examples in Fig. 76.

The three-ply braid plait at the waist is here abandoned. The strips of material are attached to two two-ply twisted cords of oronga or kiri hau. The two cords, somewhat longer than the circumference of the waist, are sketched between two sticks, posts or trees. Any uprights are used and there were no special sticks made or reserved for the purpose.

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The method of attaching the strips has already been described by the author³ in a kilt from Rarotonga with the same technique as in Aitutaki. The middle of the strip is placed below the cords. The two ends are brought up on either side and passed down between the cords as in Fig. 78a.

In some kilts a more secure attachment is made by passing the ends back through the loop made by the middle part of the strip below the cords. Fig. 78b. The strips are looped closely along the cords by one of the above methods until the required width of the kilt is attained.

In a kilt obtained In Rarotonga, the second of the above methods was used with only one suspensory cord. Fig. 79. From the figure, it is seen that the knot made was a lark's head. The kilt is shown in Fig. 81.

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The waist band is further defined by running a twined row across the strips an inch or so below the waist cords. Two or three of the doubled vertical strips are treated as a single warp. A long cord is doubled round the left marginal warp, which is enclosed in a half-turn of the two parts of the cord. The anterior cord, as it turns to the back of the next warp, passes above the posterior cord as that in turn comes forward to pass in front of the next warp. They again change position on the third warp, and so right across the width of the kilt. Thus each vertical warp of two or three double strips is enclosed by a half-turn of a single-pair twine. Fig. 80.

There is usually one line of single-pair twining as in the two kilts in Fig. 76, but in the Rarotongan kilt in Fig. 81, there are two rows. As the single-pair twine is useful for comparative purposes, it is shown up more clearly in Fig. 77.

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Further ornamentation in dance kilts was obtained by attaching a plaited band of pandanus strips to the waist border above and to a twined row below. The plaited band was attached by piercing the material with an au needle of ironwood and then pushing a continuous cord through the holes thus made. The lower twined row kept the lower edge of the plaited band taut and prevented wrinkling. The plaited band was either plain or had a design worked in colour after the manner of the sleeping mat borders.

Strings of coloured seeds or shells were also attached to some kilts as additional ornamentation, rakei. Though the kilt illustrating this is from Rarotonga, the Aitutaki method was exactly similar.