94 



Mat and Basket Weaving. 



variety of woods both useful and ornamental, and I am tempted to give a single example 

 of what might be regarded as a refined "splint" basket. Fig. 94 shows No. 6562 which 

 is simply woven of the bast of antetaranga {Pwielea airnaria). It is light and per- 

 haps flimsy, but none the less artistic and attradlive even as a mere ornament. 



Fibre Mats. — Passing again from the Hawaiian group, where mats of fibre 

 were not made, to Samoa, a group so closely allied to the Hawaiian iu langiiage, cus- 

 toms and physical form, we find the fibre of the bast of the fau (Samoany^?;/, Hawaiian 

 liau^hibisais) iised for fine mats which were greatly valued. The Hawaiians knew 

 the hau and used its fibre for many textile purposes, but did not reduce it to its con- 



FIG. 95. IE SINA, SAMOA. 



stituent fibres, a process well known to their southern brethren. Far to the west of 

 these Polynesian groups the people of Micronesia, as we shall see presently, made great 

 use of the hibiscus bast divided into fine strips, although not made into threads as in 

 Samoa. On the latter groiip the ie sina were woven by hand, without implements, and 

 while sometimes made of the unbleached bast strips, as No. 2193, in this Museum, they 

 were usually of fine thread made by pounding the bast and then bleaching the fibre 

 until it is as white as well cleaned banana fibre. In No. 2186 the finished mat is dyed 

 with ochre or some other dye producing a red-brown color. 



Not only were these mats of comparatively fine weave, but their substance was 

 more than doubled by a nap or pile put on after the mat was woven by passing a parcel 

 of the fibres with a full turn about a mesh of the mat at suitable intervals, and these 

 can be pulled out only by loosening the loop formed about the mesh ; pulling on the 

 ends only tightens the hold on the mat. The length of this nap was variable, but in 



