Technic of Marshall Islands Mats. 



51 



weaving needle, called oca^ generally from the long wing bone of the albatross, serves 

 to lift lip the strands which are woven on a lapboard of breadfruit wood one to two feet 

 long and six to twelve inches wide, called digcuat. \ A similar one is figured in the 

 se(5lion on ]\Iat Sails, p. 46.] For the embroidery a needle of human, dog or fish bone; 

 for trimming the leaves a pinna shell, djahor. All these things are kept in a basket 

 woven from coco leaves called bodjo. For the mat the leaves of Pandanus odoi-alissi- 



iinis are used. For the fine mats these 

 are plucked young and roasted over a 

 fire ; for sails or coarse mats the older 

 leaves are seledled and left to dry in 

 the sun, and then beaten with a hard 

 mallet, draggeiiiia^ of Tn'daciia shell 

 [see No. 7832, Fig. 54]; the beaten 

 leaves are rolled into bundles [like 

 those shown in Fig. 38] and laid aside 

 for occasion. 



"When the weaving begins, leaves 

 are taken four inches wide and three 

 to seven feet long, and slit into strands 

 which have various names according 

 to their width, as ajclai\ three fingers 

 wide, ajomcii thumb-breadth, d/clcrik 

 still thinner (3/16-5/16), and nia the 

 finest (1/16-3/32). The red fibres are 

 from a creeper, Ficaria raiiticiiloidcs^ 

 FIG. 54. MAi.i.KTs FUR HKATiNG PANDANUS i.KAVKs. callcd adad. The bark of the thinner 

 shoots is stripped off, scraped and freed from the epidermis and dried ; the bast then 

 assumes a brown or reddish-yellow hue. The black fibres here, as on other islands, 

 are from the bast of Hibiscus dyed with soot or mud. According to Finsch the black 

 dye is obtained from the fruit of the mangrove. These are grated and boiled in marine 

 shells or coconut shells and the bast is soaked in the decoAion until the desired tint 

 is obtained. For a red color the same strips are passed through a dye made of the 

 root bark of a certain tree {Morinda citrifolia ?) with the addition of lime." 



After describing the sleeping mats, which were arranged much as in Hawaii, 

 the coarser Aveave at the bottom and the finer at the top of a pile often four to six 

 inches thick, the bottom ones being sometimes of coco leaf, Dr. Kramer describes very 

 fully the fine clothing mats, of which class we have illustrations before us. (Figs. 52-3.) 

 It is unnecessary to go into the analysis of the ornament with the Dodor, but his ex- 



