126 ROBINSON. 
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adorned, these ornaments ranging in value and beauty from gold to plugs 
of wood, the tin cork-covers of aerated water bottles, or glass bottle- 
stoppers. Prices may be at least as low as 12 centavos per salacot, but 
the cliief styles arc more often from 50 centavos to 5 pesos, and there are 
still more expensive kinds. It is not as true now as formerly that they 
are of great value, except when they have been handed down for consider- 
able periods of time, but some are still highly esteemed. 
MAT MAKING. 
So far as the needs of the Philippines are concerned, tliis is a more 
important industry than hat making. The houses, except those of people 
in more comfortable circumstances, do not contain permanent beds ; and 
the floors are more often formed of strips of bamboo. At night, a mat 
is spread, and witli tlie addition of pillows the bed is complete. When not 
in use, the mats are rolled up and placed in a corner or elsewhere out of 
the way. They are thus a necessity everywhere, which can liardly be said 
to be true of hats, for most women go without them. However, in tlie 
Christian provinces, nearly all men wear head coverings, and for these 
hats Iiave almost entirely replaced salacots, except for use by laborers. 
The most common name for sleeping mats is petate, a Spanish word 
said to be of Mexican origin: of local names lanig has the widest vogue. 
The weaving of petates is more generally distributed than that of hats, 
and in a great many cases the needs of a house are supplied by the women 
living in it. There are also several towns with a high reputation for 
their mats, and some of these do quite an extended outside trade. This 
is rather notably the case with Basey in Samar, with Eomblon, and 
Cagayan Sulu. 
Many of the coarser materials used for hats are also employed for mats, 
indeed there is definite evidence in some cases that it is through the 
latter that their value for weaving has been discovered. It would clearly 
be impracticable to use finely divided materials for sleeping mats, not 
that they would not be of greater beauty and probably of somewhat greater 
excellence, but the amount of work and consequent high price would be 
prohibitive. 
On the whole, buri-leaf is much the most important material for making 
sleeping mats and is used throughout the Islands, the strands either pale- 
greenish or bleaclied or dyed of various colors. The size varies, but 
ordinarily the mat is about 2 meters by 1.5 meters. Next in importance 
are the pandans, especially the two used for hats in Laguna, and the sedge 
ticog, used in the Visayas and Sorsogon. For table mats, bamboo is most 
often, seen, but they might well be made of any of the better materials, 
buri-midrib M^ould be equally good, huntal and rattan better, but the cost 
would also be greater. 
Under present conditions, nearly every returning American, especially 
