- description
- # CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
## Overview
Chapter Twenty-One is a chapter from the novel *Typee*, a work of fiction by Herman Melville. It was extracted from the file `typee.txt` and is part of the larger collection "Melville Complete Works."
## Context
This chapter is situated within the narrative of *Typee*, Melville's first novel, which draws on his experiences in the Marquesas Islands. The chapter details the traditional methods of creating "tappa," a type of cloth made from the bark of trees, and discusses its cultural significance. It also touches upon the influence of European goods and the preferences of the native islanders for their traditional crafts.
## Contents
This chapter describes the intricate process of manufacturing tappa cloth. It details the use of mallets with varying indentations to beat the bark into thin sheets, creating a corduroy-like texture. The text explains how the material is moistened and hammered to achieve desired thickness and strength. It also covers the bleaching and drying process, as well as the use of vegetable juices for dyeing, noting the preference for natural colors among the Typee people. The chapter mentions the skill of Kamehameha's wife in dyeing tappa and contrasts traditional practices with the adoption of European textiles. The distinctive, musical sound produced by the mallets during the cloth-making process is also highlighted.
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- CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
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- text
- surfaces of the implement are marked with shallow parallel indentations,
varying in depth on the different sides, so as to be adapted to the
several stages of the operation. These marks produce the corduroy sort
of stripes discernible in the tappa in its finished state. After being
beaten in the manner I have described, the material soon becomes blended
in one mass, which, moistened occasionally with water, is at intervals
hammered out, by a kind of gold-beating process, to any degree of
thinness required. In this way the cloth is easily made to vary in
strength and thickness, so as to suit the numerous purposes to which it
is applied.
When the operation last described has been concluded, the new-made tappa
is spread out on the grass to bleach and dry, and soon becomes of a
dazzling whiteness. Sometimes, in the first stages of the manufacture,
the substance is impregnated with a vegetable juice, which gives it
a permanent colour. A rich brown and a bright yellow are occasionally
seen, but the simple taste of the Typee people inclines them to prefer
the natural tint.
The notable wife of Kamehameha, the renowned conqueror and king of the
Sandwich Islands, used to pride herself in the skill she displayed in
dyeing her tappa with contrasting colours disposed in regular figures;
and, in the midst of the innovations of the times, was regarded, towards
the decline of her life, as a lady of the old school, clinging as she
did to the national cloth, in preference to the frippery of the
European calicoes. But the art of printing the tappa is unknown upon the
Marquesan Islands. In passing along the valley, I was often attracted by
the noise of the mallet, which, when employed in the manufacture of
the cloth produces at every stroke of its hard, heavy wood, a clear,
ringing, and musical sound, capable of being heard at a great distance.
When several of these implements happen to be in operation at the same
time, near one another, the effect upon the ear of a person, at a little
distance, is really charming.
- title
- CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE