ETHNOLOGY HEDLEY. 



291 



Fig. 51. 



Fig. 52. 



The pinnule tips, instead of being knotted at both ends of the 

 basket as in New Guinea, are plaited along the floor and knotted 

 in one bunch inside. A second specimen has the knot outside 

 the basket. 



A third type of basket was collected at Funafuti, the specimen 

 of which came from Niutao. This (fig. 51) is a more finished 

 form and was required for permanent, not temporary use. It is 

 two feet long, one foot broad, and six inches deep. Two lengths 

 of split frond are woven together, the two strips from the rachis 

 making a double rim to the basket, No interstices are visible 

 between the strands, of which an inner and an outer layer cross 

 each other obliquely. Each pinnule is doubled, giving a thickness 

 of four leaves to the basket wall. The basket ends are rounded, 

 the floor flat with a median ridge, at each end the pinnule tips 

 are plaited into flat straps, the lower three inches of which are 

 within the basket, but the knotted extremities thereof are carried 

 through the basket wall, making external handles. This form of 

 handle appears to be indicated in a sketch of a Samoan basket by 

 Edge-Partington.* The name of this basket was given me as 

 " kete." 



STRAP. 



A shoulder-strap for carrying weights (fig. 53) is a plaited band 

 of pandanus leaf seven feet six inches 

 long and an inch to an inch and a half 

 broad. At one end is a knot, at the 

 other a loop, the one intended to be 

 drawn through the other. The native 

 name of this was unfortunately not 

 noted. 



A reference in Maori literature 

 appears to relate to a similar article : 

 "TheKawerau tribe derived their name 

 from the shoulder-straps with which 

 the chief Maki used to carry off his spoil, made of nikau leaves 

 (ran) ; hence the name, kawe to carry, ran leaves."! 



* Edge-Partington loc. tit., ii., pi. xlvi., fig. 3. 



t Percy Smith The Peopling of the North, Journ. Polyn. Soc., vi. f 

 1897, Supplement, p. 35. See also Edge-Partington loc. ciL, ii., pi. 

 ccxxxiii., fig. 11. 



Fig. 53. 



