Те Raner Higoa.— Maori Plaited Basketry and Plaitwork. 733 
to the required length of the basket, and the ends of the tufts plaited 
on, knotted with an overhand knot. The more common commencement, 
middle position. The crossings are kept from unravelling by the thumb 
and fingers of the left hand, whilst the right adds the fresh wefts and twists 
the tufts. On the surface towards the worker the overlapping wefts on 
either side come close together, but on the under-side the crossings of the 
butt-tufts show as a thick fibrous cord between the two even rows of 
wefts (fig. 39). 
Fres. 38, 39.—Laying the keel of a kete. 
In the smallish-sized basket I am describing, the length of this plaited 
keel (see Plate 79) is 18in., the depth in the middle 10in., at either end 
8 іп., and the number of wefts on each side is sixty-eight. The wefts in 
the dry condition average +; in. in width. : 
The body in these pia baskets is practically always plaited with 
a check stroke. Turning the work towards her with the keel lying 
transversely, the plaiter speedily crosses the alternate wefts close to the 
l. mmencing from the left on one side, if the direction of the wefts 
is towards the right it is obvious that alternate wefts must be bent close 
to the keel at right angles to their course to provide the sinistral wefts. 
As in all this work the plaiting proceeds in widths from the left towards 
the right, the dextrals form the upper layer and the sinistrals the lower. 
The plaiting proceeds exactly as in the check mats, except that wefts are 
not turned in to the body at either edge as they pass the marginal crossing 
weft. Thus a plaited triangle occurs, for the reason described in the poti 
basket. The marginal wefts of the triangle are, in a neat manner, kept from 
coming loose. If the weft is a dextral, the free end of a sinistral that 
passes under it at the spot likely to become loosened is looped back over 
