Taiiiyai! Mais and Baskets. 



21 



took their "braiding" to the public palavers, much as the old ladies of the higher races 

 take their knitting to an afternoon gathering for gossip or sociability. Before the ad- 

 vent of nails to the Pacific sennit was in universal use, and its wide usefulness can 

 hardl)' be appreciated by people who have a whole arsenal of nails, screws, bolts, 

 clamps, etc. But our in- 

 terest here is in the use 

 made of this braid in bas- 

 ketry. Besides the exam- 

 ple from the Carolines we 

 have the curious cylindri- 

 cal covered basket from 

 Tonga, of which I have 

 seen one in the Berne Mu- 

 seum and two in the British 

 Museum (Fig. 26), but I 

 believe them to be very 

 scarce in the Tongan group 

 at present. They are plaited 

 in brown and black trian- 

 gles, and decorated with 

 white, seldom black, shell 

 disks. Mariner gives in 

 his account of the Tongan 

 Islanders (18 17) the follow- 

 ing description of Tongan 

 mats and baskets: 



In respect to mat and basket 

 making, they have mats of vari- 

 ous kinds, made of strips of 

 leaves or l)ark selected, dried, 

 and otherwise prepared ; all of which, except one or two of a coarser kind, are faliricated by women. 

 The following are the names and quality of them : 



Gnafi gnafi [Gafigafi]. — Mats to wear, of a finer quality, made of the leaves of the/a or 

 paooniro [pandanus], that have been transplanted, in order to give them a finer and softer texture. 



GiE.— Stronger mats made of the bark of the /yzf [fau=hibiscus], or olonga [olona], worn 

 chiefly by people in canoes to keep out the wet, as the water does not damage them : they appear as 

 if they were made of horsehair 



Falla. — Mats to sleep on, made of the leaves of the paoongo. These are double, and are of 

 various sizes, from six feet by three, to seventy or eighty feet by six ; to lie along the whole length 

 of the house. 



La.— Mats for sails, made of the leaves of the fa [pandanus]; they are very strong and light. 



Fig. 25. RorLS OF se;nnit. 



