Armor of Sci/iiif. 



19 



No. 8315 has more the general shape of the first shield and is made in the same 

 wa^', but the weave is single and not very close, so that the rattan strips which com- 

 pose the substance of the fabric are easily seen between the strips of rattan skin. The 

 course of the rattan (for so far as it appears it is a single strip) is spiral beginning at 

 the centre of the lower and larger semicircle and ending on the right-hand outer edge 

 of the smaller end. The designs are 

 woven in with darker strips and are the 

 same on both sides, but the dark and 

 weather-stained surface of the shield ren- 

 ders these indistinct in the illustration. 

 The inside is much less carefully' woven, 

 and the pandanus leaf lining is reduced 

 to several hexagonal pads about the 

 handle. This shield came from Rubiana, 

 where its native name is bako^ according 

 to our collecT;or. No. 1861 is a plain 

 wooden shield of the same shape, and 

 with similar designs in black but without 

 weaving. It is lighter than the rattan 

 shields. In some colleAions are wooden 

 shields from this group decorated witli 

 inlaid pearl shell. 



Besides the leaf the coir or fibre of 

 the external coat of the coconut is much 

 used in basketry. This coir is a well 

 known article of commerce and is com- 

 mon in door mats and carpets, so that no 

 especial description is needed here. In 

 Polynesia its use for sennit is universal. 

 In the olden time the houses were tied together with it; outriggers made fast to 

 the canoes; stone adzes bound to their handles; and in fact it was a most impor- 

 tant fadlor in domestic economy and industrial art. 



On the Gilbert Ids. the natives made a most elaborate and effective armor from 

 this fibre that afforded protedlion from the weapons of shark teeth used in their warfare. 

 Specimens of this armor are in most large ethnological museums, and Fig. 23 will show 

 the common form. There is a jacket and trousers of netted fibre close and tough 

 enough to generally withstand the shark teeth, but certainly so harsh in texture that 

 the hair shirts the penitents of medieval Europe are said to have worn next the skin 



FIG. 2\. CuCO KIBRE ARMOR. GILBKRT IDS. 



