Mat and Basket Weaznng. 



With this wealth of material, mostly growing wild, but in some cases, as waoke 

 and olona, cultivated for convenience or to improve the quality, it is not strange that 

 the islanders made their clothes (scanty indeed, but sufificient ), their beds and pillows, 

 carpets and house linings, baskets, shoes and hats, fish lines and nets, sennit, cords and 

 ropes of the varied form and quality we are to consider in this chapter. While the use of 

 some of these fibres for felting in the interesting manufadure of paper (kapa), for which 

 Polynesians are celebrated, must, from its importance, be treated in a separate chapter, 

 the other uses of a textile nature will be treated here, arranged for convenience under 

 the following heads: — 



Pal.m lSavKS and FiiiRHS. — Bris- 

 kets, Fans, Sennit. Hats. 

 Pai.m Stems. — Shields. 

 Pandaniis. — Hats, Mats. Pillows, 



Baskets, Sails, Mat Garments, 



Cord (covered), Fijian Basket. 

 FrEYCINETI.\ ROOT.S. — Baskets. 

 Fern Stems. — Baskets, Fish 



Traps. 

 Grass. — Makaloa Mats, Rush 



Mats, Cord, Bambu Fans, 



Combs, Spears an<l Clubs. 

 Sandals. 



.\usTRAi,iAN Baskets. 

 HiBLSCUs Fibre. — Mats of Uk 



Samoans. 

 Baskets of Maori. 

 Banana Fibre. — Looms of the 



Caroline Islands, Caroline Dress 



Blats. 

 Olona Fibre.— Nets, Koko ))uu- 



piiu. 



While the order here 

 indicated may in cases 

 be departed from, the subje<?ts will all receive attention and the general order will be 

 preserved. It is an arrangement hy material rather than by product. 



Whether mats or baskets were first invented may not be definitely settled ; nor 

 is it of importance here where we are not treating of general manufadlures, but only 

 of special produdls in a region where man did not begin at the bottom, but came into 

 the land armed with certain implements and a partial civilization. If it be necessar}' 

 to explain why I begin with the latter, rather than the simpler mat, I would ask my 

 reader to try to divest himself of all misleading faAs of civilization as we know it, 

 much as one does partially' when camijing in wild countries, or in living in this very 

 Pacific region. He makes a hut of branches, he spreads a bed of leaves, but to gather 

 the leaves as the birds do would be tedious and the night far gone before the couch 

 would be comfortable; and he needs something which would answer to a basket 



HAWAIIAN KI LEAF BASKET. 



