The ukulele is a Polynesian version of the Portuguese Cavaquinho, brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese explorers. The Cavaquinho was strung with either wire or gut strings. What the native Hawaiians strung them with, I'm not sure. Probably gut of some kind.

Incidentally, the lute in its various incarnations and permutations was strung with gut. Considering that lutes were double-strung in what were called "courses" and generally had at least six courses (11 strings, the top string, called the "chanterelle," was single) and sometimes as many as eighteen (or more)—and were tuned with one-to-one ratio push-pegs—must have been real fun to keep in playing condition.

Desmond Dupré, the lutenist in the Alfred Deller Consort, quoted a passage from an old instruction book for the lute, which said, "If the the lutenist lives to the ripe old age of ninety years, he will have spent sixty of those years tuning his instrument!"

CLICKY.

Don Firth

P. S. I tend to think that the lute is probably not all that suitable for blues.