Te Rawer Hrgoa.— Maori Plaited Basketry and Plaitwork. 717 
anything from leaves or fern to a Persian carpet. Floor-mats consist of 
two kinds—the rough, quickly made mats for everyday use, and the 
better-class sleeping-mat, usually with designs plaited in with coloured 
wefts. 
Ordinary Floor-mats (Taka).—These mats have a variety of names 
according to district, such as pokipoki, tamata, hipora, &c. They are made 
from the natural wefts of the Phormium tenax. The length is usually 6 ft. 
or more, so as to prove sufficiently long for the reclining figure, whilst the 
width varies from 2 ft. to 4ft. according to the length of flax-blades from 
which the wefts have been prepared. 
The beginning consists of plaiting the butt-tufts of the wefts together 
with a three-ply plait until the required length of 6 ft. or so is reached. 
This stage is called whiri (^ twist,” or “ plait"). There are three ways 
of commencing the whiri. 
№ 
Fics. 11-14.—Method (Б) of commencing the twist, or plait, whiri. 
(a.) The first weft has its butt-tuft split and diverged into two equal 
arts. The second weft is placed parallel with the first, overlapping its 
middle tuft (2), and then the left tuft (1L) is twisted over it to the 
iddl iti . 6). A thi 
fig. 7 d The н is ыл as before. It will be noted that the butt- 
tuft (1L), and they are treated as one element in the three-ply plaiting. 
The Gant tuft (2) L twisted over to the middle (fig. 8), and then the left 
tuft (1R) is twisted over it to take up the middle position (fig. 9). The 
addition of weft 4 and the right and left twists results in fig. 10. Wefts 
are added singly in this manner until the required length is reached, when 
