72 NATUKAL IIISTOKY OF HAWAII. 



them. So completely, however, has the art and manufacture disappeared that 

 the implements used in its maniifaeture even are only to be seen in museums, 

 while the technique of the art must lie gleaned from the scanty records of the 

 early missionaries and travelers. 



Mat iLvKiNG. 



Perhaps the manufacture next in importance to the making of tapa was 

 the plaiting of mats. These were used by the natives to lounge upon by day and 

 to sleep upon by night. Mats were also used as sails for their canoes, as parti- 

 tions in their houses, as food mats, clothing and robes, — in fact their uses were 

 innumerable. Taken altogether, being more durable than tapa, their possession 

 in abundance v.-as regarded as unmistakable evidence of material wealth. 



Tlie typical bed of the Hawaiian chiefs was a raised portion of the floor, 

 perhaps one entire end of the house. The elevated portion was made of loosely 

 laid stones forming a pile eight or ten feet square, over which was spread several 

 thicknesses of mats, as many as thirty or forty being employed on the bed of a 

 well-to-do chief. Naturally the coarsest ones were placed at the bottom and 

 the finer ones spread on top. Lauhala mats are still made and used quite generally 

 throughout the group, many of the best houses being furnished with them in 

 place of the more familiar though less approved floor rugs. Several materials 

 were made use of in the weaving of mats, the most important being 

 the lauhala ; next came the stems of the makaloa, and lastly species of other 

 native sedges. 



Lauhal.v Mats. 



In the making of lauhala mats, the leaves were broken from the trees, by the 

 women, with long sticks. They were withered over a fire for a short time and 

 then dried in the sun. The young leaves were preferred to the old ones, so 

 that in plaiting the mats the raw material was carefully selected and graded 

 as to quality and color. It was then scraped, the saw-like edges removed, and 

 split into strips of the required width, varying from an eighth to an inch or 

 more in width. The braiding was done by hand without the aid of a frame 

 or instrument, ami, though mats were often made twenty-five feet square, they 

 were finished with great evenness of texture and regularity of shape. The finer 

 braided ones were usually small in size and left with a wide fringe; being 

 greatly prized, they were occasionally carried bj^ attendants to be spread down 

 on other coarser mats when their chiefs chose to sit. 



IMakaloa ]\Iats. 



The rush or sedge mats, rallied iii;ikalna mats, arc soft and tiin"; the 

 islands of Kauai, and particularly Xiihau, were famous for their production. 

 For this reason the mats are frequently spoken of as Niihau mats. But on both 

 islands the finest mats were those made from the young shoots. 



Many of the lauhala, as well as most of the Xiiliau mats were ornamented with 



