f 
124 . .ROBINSON.... 
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way, cooked. Lining the inner surface of this vegetable and penetrating 
the softer parts, is a network of fibrous substances, particularly evident 
in the wild varieties, more often distinguished by the name tamhuho or 
tahuhoc. This is dried, and while retaining its shape, is used for sponges; 
pressed flat, it is sometimes cut into strips, which are sewed together into 
hats of a yellowish-brown color. These are made in Manila, San Miguel 
de Mayumo, and other places, they are few in number, and the price is 
mainly a question of barter, but is likely to be at least two pesos per hat. 
As hats, these do little more than to cover the head, the work being so 
open tliat they afford but slight protection. Usually they are entirely 
of the one material, the strips being more or less doubled or multiplied 
at the edges, with a mere band of cotton itiside in contact with the head. 
San Miguel de Mayumo also exhibited at the Carnival of 1910 a hat made 
of the wood of "acacia," Enterolohium saman (Willd.) Prain, lined with 
this tahuhoc and cotton. ■ 
The prettiest hats of tMs class are made from the bast of a' species 
not definitely ascertained, but probably belonging to the family Sterculia- 
ceae. These are credited both to Bulacan and Ilocos !N"orte. They can 
fairly be described as pretty, and would make a nice curiosity, but there 
is no particular reason why for such purposes, they should be woven into ^ 
the shape of hats, although such hats are well calculated to attract 
■ » 
attention to the wearer during their probably short life. 
. Yet another gouvd, upo, Lagenaria vulgaris Ser., is sometimes used, 
but while the result is often called a hat, it would better come under the 
head of salacot. In effect, it is much what a pumpkin would be if cut 
in two, cleaned, dried, and variously ornamented. 
■ ■ . ■ , ■ ■. ., ■ . 
STRAW HATS. 
b ' 
This term, for which the Spanish equivalent paja is in more common 
use here, is employed in this paper not only for hats made of cereal straw, 
but for all others of similar shape, with stiff, flat brims and crowns. The 
distinction is not at all fundamental, for it is becoming common for hats 
of Calasiao, bamboo, buri-leaf, and huntal to be used as the outer covering 
over a stiffer framework. This is a comparatively recent departure in 
the Philippines, although not at all new for Philippine hats after export. 
Such hats, although nearly always of the cheaper ^grades of the materials 
^above named, have a very good appearance, and are rapidly becoming 
important for local use, at prices from 2 to 8 pesos each. It is highly 
improbable that they can be exported in such a way as to compete with 
factory-made hats elsewhere, unless they can be produced under equivalent 
condiliuns, and at a much lower price than at present. Their local use is 
sure to increase. 
4 
A very high percentage of the straw hats worn in the Islands is made 
at a factory in Manila, but from imported materials. Yet others are 
