26 



Mat and Basket Weaving. 



coco cord. The long strips crossing the bottom appear again on the sides and serve 

 for handles to this ver}' flexible basket. Returning to basket No. 1888 (see Fig. 34) 

 we also come back to our primitive coco leaf strudlure. The midrib is split and cut 

 into short seAions with the leaflets attached, and these .sections break joints all round 

 the inside of the rim, as shown in the figure, where one is siipposed to be looking into 



the basket. The weave is usuall}^ a 



three-leaf twill changing four times in 

 the circumference from the vertical 

 to horizontal with five-leaf twill; the 

 upper rim is braided. To make the 

 basket of good substance the leaflets 

 are double, the midrib in centre of fold, 

 so that it shows on the external edge 

 of the strip. The basket is 14 in. in 

 diameter and 9 in. high, and the bot- 

 tom hole is 4.5 in. in diameter, and the 

 plug, as may be seen in the figure, is 

 rudely rounded, the ends of the doubled 

 leaves being left very long. There are 

 no handles. The basket in the upper 

 part of the illustration is also from the 

 Solomon Ids., but of a very different 

 model and material. It is certainly a 

 common form of food basket, as the 

 Museum possesses three examples, two 

 of them cpiite large. In these the bot- 



•.- V FIG. 34. I!A.SKKT.S KROM FLORIDA, S. I. ^^^^^ J^ ^^.^^^^ J^ ^^^ ^^g^^l Way wlthoUt 



the mysterious hole. In our ignorance of the botany of the Solomons it is difficult to 

 determine the material used, which much resembles rattan and was so labelled some 

 years ago. If it be calamus it has been dyed a dark brown, almost black. Cane bas- 

 kets of coiled work are common among the Australian natives ; another in this collec- 

 tion is from Fiji; and still another from New Britain. A plain flat rattan basket from 

 Santa Cruz is shown in Fig. 35. This is 20 in. in diameter, and the splints of rattan 

 are taken in threes and simply interwoven; the ends are not turned but bound into a 

 rim of sticks, an insecure method, as may be seen at the bottom of the figure. The 

 absence of the genus Calanms in most of the Polynesian groups is sometimes made up 

 by the use of bambu, but usually the flexibility of the former cannot be imitated by 

 the stiffer grass. In the Pelew Ids., however, baskets of bambu have something of the 



