Mai and Baskc/ JJ'i-a7'iiio\ 



enwrapping a single fruit, makes a substitute for basket.^ There are some satchel-like 

 baskets (see PI. II, Gilbert Island Basketr_v) that seem to be a folded mat, but on the 

 other hand the basket may suggest a mat when it becomes ragged and broken open. 



To study the evolution of a coco palm leaf basket we draw the material naturally 

 from the central Pacific where the Cocos uucifcra flourishes, and is indeed the principal 

 tree of the low coral isl- 

 ands. Figure I shows a 

 neat primitive form, but 

 the more common of these 

 simple baskets is much 

 ruder and is used univer- 

 sall}' in bringing copra 

 (the extraAed meat of the 

 ripe coconut) to the store- 

 houses, for collecting fish 

 and coral, and for many 

 other purposes. In this 

 Museum are Nos. 6592-93, 

 which were brought full 

 of coral from Pagopago, 

 Tutuila, of the Samoan 

 group (Fig. 3); and No. 

 5631, from Ponape of the 

 Caroliue Ids. ( Plate I, 

 left-hand upper.) Photo- 

 graphs in the Museum 

 show precisely similar 

 forms from Tonga and 

 elsewhere in the coconut 

 region. Baskets of this class are limited in size by the leaf of which they are made. 

 In Fig. I, No. 5621, the length of the top strip is 17 in., and from this the depth of the 

 basket is 1 1 in. No. 6592 is formed of a split strip 35 in. loug, bent end to end; No. 

 6593 has a similar strip 47 in. loug: while No. 5631 is composed of four split strips, 

 each about 10 in. long and with six leaflets, woven simpl}- together, the ends of the 

 leaflets being brought up the sides and tied together to form a handle (not shown in 

 the figure). The last basket measures 16X13 in., with a depth of about 8 in. 



'Hon. S. B. Dole, in reading proof, reminds me that Ilawaiians also tied the ends of tlie leaves together to 

 make a sack for carrjnng ohia ai {Eiigoiid iiialaccensis). 



Fig. 4. COCONUT haskkt from siiorti.axd island. 



