26 Director'' s Annual Report. 



or flax, and is manufactured without a shuttle, the threads being 

 passed between each other as in making mats. This cloth, pos- 

 sessing the strength and pliability of ours, is well calculated for 



the sails of their canoes " There can be little doubt that 



this material was made from the bark of the Hibiscus, which on 

 being bleached and pounded by a process known to the Samoans, 

 somewhat resembled coarse flax fibre. However, there has been 

 nothing to prove that this cloth was ever used for sails, and 

 L,a Perouse is the only authorit}', ancient or modern, who sug- 

 gested the possibility of its being so utilized. The Maoris, of New 

 Zealand, used a sail of thick cloth or mat made in a frame from 

 New Zealand flax. This was the only fibre known to them. 



The mode of preparing the Pandanus leaves was similar in all 

 the islands and the following description will suffice : The prickly 

 edges were plucked off with a shell, and the leaves then rolled up 

 and baked in a native oven. After baking the}^ were strung 

 together and placed in the sea to bleach for five to seven days, and 

 then rinsed in fresh water and placed in the sun for dr3'ing and 

 further bleaching. When thoroughly dry they were slit into thin 

 strips with another shell, which made them ready for the weaver. 



When not weaving mats for sails the custom was for the 

 weaver to commence on the square base of the mat and after weav- 

 ing a strip of the proposed breadth, to continue to weave forward 

 until the required measurements were reached. This necessitated 

 the spreading out of the entire work over a level space on the 

 ground, and the weaver was obliged to move along as the mat 

 grew. Of course these mats, made for sleeping or wearing, it was 

 necessary to weave in one piece, but with the matting for sails the 

 process was simplified for the weaver, the mats being woven in 

 pieces of many shapes, which being of small size could be easier 

 handled by the maker. The sails throughout Micronesia were 

 always made in strips varying in width from four inches to three feet, 

 the Micronesians being particularly apt in this form of mat-making. 

 The Marshall Islanders, who are among the most expert canoe 

 builders and sailors in the Pacific, use a lapboard cut from bread- 

 fruit wood i^Artocarpus incisa) on which the mat is woven. The 

 board is arched and sets very comfortably in the lap of a person sit- 

 ting on the ground . The strips of matting as woven are passed from 

 the board and neatly rolled up. The accompanying illustration 

 (P"ig. 9) shows one of these boards and a sail strip, both being ex- 



