2 Mai and Basket Wearing. 



have fra.c^ments of baskets and mats from the Egj'ptiaii tombs of early clA'nasties, and 

 u-onderfully woven chjths from the Iniaca of ancient Pern; but where, outside of a few 

 museums, are the mats and baskets of a majority of the tribes of Amerinds ? I do not 

 know of a single specimen of old Hawaiian basket in any of the principal museums of 

 the world, — the only complete specimen that survives is in the Bishop Museum." The 

 art is wliollv lost to the Hawaiians and their choicest mats are now very rare. Basket 

 making of the choice kind ceased on the.se islands many years ago, and another genera- 

 tion will liave forgotten how to make niakaloa mats. The subject then of aboriginal 

 basket and mat making is growing in interest and importance, and even the islands of 

 the great ocean can contril)utc to its history. 



In Pol}-nesia there was no loom, for the pegs and bars used b3- the Maori of 

 New Zealand to assist in weaving his mat of "flax" {Phornnnm lenax) do not deserve 

 the name. Cloth was generally replaced by paper, commonl}- called tapa or bark cloth, 

 from Rapanui to Kauai and across the ocean westward. All along the northern and 

 western boundaries of Polj-nesia the islanders had looms, and, as we shall see later, 

 those of the Caroline and vSanta Cruz groups were suflficientlv developed to turn out 

 admirable products. If the proto-Polynesiaus came from Asia they saw a fence of 

 looms across every possible path from thence to the Pacific. On all the islands where 

 they settled there are and have been cultivated the paper mulberry {Ihonssone/ia papv- 

 rifera)^ hibiscus, banana and other fibre-plants used more or less in the textile pro- 

 cesses. The material was at hand, but with the exception of the Maori, whose climate 

 forbade, Polynesians preferred to felt their fibres rather than weave them, although 

 they all understood the process of extradling these fibres as in the hibiscus mats of the 

 Samoans, the olona cord of the Hawaiians, and the sennit of coconut husk fibre of 

 Polynesians generally. That they made fairly good use of their knowledge, apart 

 from the loom, I shall endeavor to show bj' the work of the Hawaiians and, .so far as 

 material is at my disposal, of other Polynesians and their neighbors with whom they 

 had in ancient times more or less communication. 



All through Polynesia the immigrants found vegetable produdls very fit for 

 basket or mat making. Whether on some of the groups certain plants were brought 

 with the immigrants or preceded them in colonization need not be discussed here. 

 Everywhere they had, even during the period of their legendary history, the hala 

 {Pandanus odoralixsinius^ et al. sp.) of which the leaves were used for both mats and 

 baskets, and the fibres of the aerial roots for sandals and baskets; coconut (Cows 

 nncifera) whose fibres they twisted or braided, whose leaves they made into baskets, 

 mats and fans, and whose rootlets thej' used to plait into fish baskets and traps; waoke 



\Several of thest Ijaskcts havt long been in use in Honolulu families, but almost invariably without Ihf cover 

 that properly belongs to them, as we shall see below. One, added to the Museum collection since the above was 

 written, was in use for lifty-llvc years by the giver. 



