Simple Foinis of Baskcliy. 5 



although he can do without a mat. We are supposing him without clothing (in the 

 fashion of the region), so he can neither use his hat nor his handkerchief. He might 

 have been wrecked on a desert island without the verj- convenient concomitants of the 

 Swiss Famil}' Robinson, and to gather his simple food, whether roots from the ground, 

 nuts from the trees, or fish from the sea, would a mat or a basket come best to hand ? 

 To preserve his little hoard would he prefer a basket or a mat ? But a basket is a more 

 complicated bit of work than a mere flat mat. Perhaps some baskets are trulj' more 

 difficult to make than are some mats; but here is one ( Fig. i j, common enough through- 



ClJUONlT l.K.AF BASKETS FKOII TITIILA. 



out the tropical world, which is as simple as can well be imagined, and, while an efficient 

 basket, also suggests how to make a mat. The fresh leaf of the coco palm is always 

 at hand and the suitable section of midrib is cut off from the long ( 10-12 feet) leaf and 

 the leaflets braided together around whatever the basket is to hold. The strong mid- 

 rib is the handle, and to open the basket it is onlj- necessar}- to split this, an easj' 

 operation. The particular basket here figured came to me from Manila filled with 

 delicious Manila mangoes — thanks to Lieutenant-Commander George M. Stone}' of the 

 U. S. Transport Solace — but similar rude baskets are made everywhere, and the traveler 

 buys them at Suva or Apia filled with coral, and in some islands the carpenter or 

 mason brings his few tools in a similar kit. Another that came to this Museum filled 

 with madrepores is shown in Plate lY, the upper left-hand figure. The only simpler 

 carrying machine of the nature of a basket known to me is the Hawaiian ki leaf (Cor- 

 dyline terviinalis), which is simply wrapped around a single fish (Fig. 2); or, if a 

 number of articles are to be carried, as oranges or limes, a stem of leaves, each leaf 



