

72 



Mat and Basket Weaving. 



baskets, as at the present day. Three ferns bore the general name iivaiwa;'' Aspleniuni 

 Adiantwn-nignim, Pteris decipiens and Adiantum capillus Veneris; all of these having 

 smooth dark-colored stipes varying in color from dark brown throngh pnrple to black. 

 A material not very 

 flexible (except when 

 soaked), bnt glossy 

 and durable. 



In the days when 

 Honoluln was a ren- 

 de/A-ons for whalers 

 in the Pacific a fash- 

 ion was introduced 

 among the Hawaii- 

 ans that must have 

 borrowed from meth- 

 ods used long before, 

 so that in describing 

 it the mere curiosity 

 of the result yields 

 wholly to the sug- 

 gestion of a manu- 

 facture of fern-stem 

 basketry, of which 

 no other remains are 

 extant. The hats for 

 women, still made in 

 fancy form, do not 

 suggest any ancient 

 origin. Captains of 



whalers almost invariably had on board their vessels at least one silk hat, not always of 

 the latest block, which they were accustomed to wear ashore on public or important 

 occasions, and these absurd and uncomfortable head-dresses, which fashion imposed 

 upon the white man, roused great admiration in the breast of his dusk}' imitator. 

 Wives or sweethearts soon fashioned the respedlable imitation (it was in the days of 

 the early missionaries), which is shown in Fig. 72. Fern stems and horse hair are 

 the components, and it was certainly better fitted to withstand tropical rains than its 

 silken prototype. The particular specimen figured, now in the Bishop Museum, was 



"Andrews givts the (Iciinition "He mea ulu e like me ke palaa, ua ulana pa ia me ka papale mauu." 



FIG. 72. HAWAIIAN FERN-STEM HAT. 



