MATTING AND BASKET-MAKING. 121 



and durable, and can be cleansed with soap and 

 water without receiving the slightest injury. It is 

 made of the leaves of one of the native trees, called 

 there the vacoa. Sugar is now imported so abun- 

 dantly from the Mauritius, that a large quantity of 

 these bags are thus obtained in this country. They 

 are washed and cut up into mats, and sold at so 

 very cheap a rate, that the humblest housekeeper can 

 afford to have a mat at his threshold, or to have his 

 comfortless brick floor concealed by a warm, clean, 

 and durable covering. 



The inner bark of the linden-tree is employed very 

 extensively in Russia for the manufacture of mats, 

 both for home arid for foreign consumption. The boors 

 of that country almost universally wear mat shoes, 

 made of the rind of the young shoots of the linden ; 

 and to such an extent is this custom carried, that it 

 is calculated many millions of these shoes are annually 

 platted and worn. The destruction of the linden-tree, 

 in consequence of this constant demand for its bark, 

 is immense; and the practice of the peasantry in em- 

 ploying so unsubstantial a covering for their feet, is 

 very much deprecated by writers who treat on the in- 

 ternal resources of the Russian empire. 



Mr. Tooke, in his work on Russia, has inserted 

 a statement showing how many plants are thus 

 yearly wasted. He observes, ** The apologists for 

 the practice of wearing the matted shoes bring 

 as reasons, 1st, the poverty of the boors ; 2dly, the 

 quick growth of the linden ; and Srdly, that the 

 making of them forms no insignificant occupation 

 for their bye hours. The first is only in part well- 

 founded, as the boors are not every where poor, 

 and as these shoes, in many parts, stand them in 

 more money than leathern ones would cost. The 

 young linden-sticks grow undoubtedly the faster 

 afterwards, but not in the same proportion with 



M 



