Sa>iioaii Mat Making. 41 



"Upon the completion of one of these valuable mats. . . .all the women familiar 

 with the mauufa(?tiire of these mats resident in the neighborhood were sxunmoned on 

 a given day to bathe the mat. On the women assembling they proceeded to wash the 

 mat in fresh water, and after well stretching it out to dry they adjourned to the house 

 to partake of a feast provided by the hostess to celebrate the completion of her mat." 



How clear the piAure of these children of Nature assembling on the bank of 

 one of the man}- Samoan streams to wash the mat which, after perhaps a year's work, 

 one of their number had finished! They all rejoiced, for was not the work an honor 

 to their village, to their sex, to their friend ? And if the customs of both children and 

 domestic animals (dogs and pigs) were then as now, the washing must have been more 

 than an idle ceremonj-. I am well aware that a Samoan house had a low fence across 

 the doorways, intended to keep out pigs, for on this I have sat while chatting with the 

 inmates of more than one Samoan grass house, both on Upolu and Tutuila ; but I also 

 know that in modern times at least it is customary to take the growing mat out under a 

 shad}' tree where both pigs and hardlj- less dirty children could scarcel}^ be kept from 

 off it. The washing we may be sure was needed. Our author goes on to say : 



"There were also at least thirteen other kinds of clothing, sleeping and house 

 mats made bj- the Samoans.' Various dyes were prepared from vegetables and roots 

 of trees. A beautiful crimson was obtained by mixing the inner bark of the root of 

 the noniifiafi'a {Eiigrtiia tnalaaensis) with sea water and lime. Yellow was prepared 

 from turmeric and oil. It was also obtained from the bark of the iioii/i {Alon'iida 

 citrifolia^ previously mentioned. A fine purple was obtained from the 3'oung shoots 

 of the mountain plantain, soa\i {Miisa fc/ii)^ and a brown by mixing the inner bark 

 oi the paiii (1 ) with sea water. A black colour was imparted to various articles by 

 burying them in the soft mud of a taro patch formed in a swamp." 



Continuing our exploration of the technic of the islanders we find on Fiji, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Berthold Seemann,'" a most trustworthy authority, that "Mats with 

 which the floors of houses and sleeping places are thickly covered, are made of two 

 kinds of screw pines ; the coarsest of the leaves of the Balawa {Paudanus odoraiissinnis^ 

 Linn.); the finest, of those of the Voivoi {P. can'cosns, Rumph.). The Balawa, or 

 Vadoa, as it is termed in some distridls, is a tree twentj'-five feet high, indicative of 

 poor soil, growing in exposed positions, and being one of the first plants appearing on 

 newly formed islands. Its singular habit has often been dwelt upon. The smooth 

 white branches, with their dense heads of foliage, not inaptly compared to the arms of 

 a huge candelabrum ; the strong aerial roots, covered with minute spines, and serving 

 as so many props ; the curious corkscrew-like arrangement of the leaves, the leathery, 



'Some of these mats were laufau, lalaga, ie taua, ie 'ula, ie sina and si'aloa. 

 '°Viti. B. Seemann. Cambridge, 1862, p. 554. 



