into a small quantity of cocoa-nut water: To prepare a gill of cocoa-nut
water will require between three and four quarts of these little figs.
When a sufficient quantity is prepared, the leaves of the Etou are well
wetted in it, and then laid upon a plantain leaf, where they are turned
about till they become more and more flaccid, and then they are gently
squeezed, gradually increasing the pressure, but so as not to break
them; as the flaccidity increases, and they become spungy, they are
supplied with more of the liquor; in about five minutes the colour
begins to appear upon the veins of the leaves, and in about ten or a
little more, they are perfectly saturated with it: They are then
squeezed, with as much force as can be applied, and the liquor strained
at the same time that it is expressed.

For this purpose, the boys prepare a large quantity of the Moo, by
drawing it between their teeth, or two little sticks, till it is freed
from the green bark and the branny substance that lies under it, and a
thin web of the fibres only remains; in this the leaves of the Etou are
enveloped, and through these the juice which they contain is strained as
it is forced out. As the leaves are not succulent, little more juice is
pressed out of them than they have imbibed: When they have been once
emptied, they are filled again, and again pressed, till the quality
which tinctures the liquor as it passes through them is exhausted; they
are then thrown away; but the moo, being deeply stained with the colour,
is preserved, as a brush to lay the dye upon the cloth.

The expressed liquor is always received into small cups made of the
plantain leaf, whether from a notion that it has any quality favourable
to the colour, or from the facility with which it is procured, and the
convenience of small vessels to distribute it among the artificers, I do
not know.