290 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



required (fig. 48). The especial use of this is for lashing wood- 

 work, as in sewing together the planks of canoes or fastening the 

 frames of houses. An identical cord is made in New Guinea. A 

 hank from Funafuti of three-ply cord, weighing five and a half 

 ounces, measures twenty-eight fathoms, in diameter it is three- 

 sixteenths of an inch. Another example from a kafunga is half 

 an inch broad. 



Four strands are plaited, direct from the yarn, to make a round 

 rope, " oukafakanapoua," (fig. 49) of especial strength, used for 

 canoe rigging, deep-sea fishing, etc. This rope is very pliant and 

 does not kink even when new. A hank of this from Funafuti, 

 weighing one pound one ounce, contains thirty-two fathoms of 

 cord a quarter of an inch in diameter. From the Gilbert Islands 

 there are in the Australian Museum samples of human hair-cord 

 woven in this pattern. 



Cook said of the Tongans : "The rope they make use of is laid 

 exactly like ours, and some of it is four or five inch."* 



The most complex cord I have seen from the Pacific is a seven- 

 stranded one from Hawaii. From the Marshall Islands Finsch 

 described! a large rope laid by a curious mechanism upon a central 

 core. 



In the Ellice a rough rope, like our straw rope, was occasionally 

 improvised from the natural matting which sheathes the budding 

 palm fronds. 



BASKETS. 



Baskets loosely woven from a portion of 

 a palm frond are hastily improvised as needed 

 for carrying fish or other articles. These are 

 never kept touseasecond time, but are thrown 

 away when emptied. I have elsewhere j des- 

 cribed similar baskets from New Guinea, 

 which, however, differ in size and pattern. 

 Those of the New Hebrides appear, according 

 to Lieutenant B. T. Somerville's description, 

 to be made differently from either. 



The simplest form (fig. 50) is a sort of tray 

 for carrying fish. The specimen preserved 

 measures about a foot in diameter, in shape is irregularly rhom- 

 boidal, and consists of a portion of palm frond rachis with fifteen 

 pinnules attached, which are interlaced and then knotted in two 

 bows. 



Another type (fig. 52) is bag shaped. An ordinary example is 

 eighteen inches long and half as deep, formed by doubling part of 

 a frond split down the middle and plaiting the pinnules as before, 



* Cook loc. tit., i., p. 216. 



t Finsch Ann. K. K. Naturhist. Hofmus., vii., 1893, p. 158. 



J Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S.W., (2), x., 1895 (1896), p. 615, pi. Iviii., fig. 2. 



