Linton — Tlie Marquesas Islands 381 



MATTING AND BASKETRY 



MATS 



The twin arts of matting and basketry appear to have been less developed 

 in the Marquesas than in any other part of tropical Polynesia and both have 

 been nearly destroyed by European contact. No mats of the better sort are 

 now manufactured and the processes employed are unknown to most of the 

 natives. Only three materials appear to have been used for mats, ti leaves, 

 coconut fronds, and the leaves of the pandanus. Mats made from ti leaves were 

 small crude affairs, hardly deserving the name. They were used only to line 

 and cover uia pits. (See PI. lxvi. A.) They were made as follows: 



A quantity of the leaves were collected and the stems and heavy portion of the mid- 

 rib removed, without breaking the inner surface of the leaf. These stemmed leaves were 

 laid in bundles of three or four, the face of each leaf being against the back of the one below. 

 These bundles were then placed side by side with a wide regular overlap, always from the 

 same direction, and were pinned together with splints about two inches long made from the 

 midrib of a coconut leaflet or from bamboo. Three of these splints were used to join each pair 

 of bundles, one being placed in the middle and the other two near either end. In doing the 

 work a long splint was used ; a portion of the end of the splint was broken ofT each time and 

 left as a pin. The resultant mat was as wide as the length of the leaves and could be extended 

 indefinitely by pinning on new bundles. 



Coconut mats are still regularly made in the Marquesas ; the work is done 

 by men and women indiscriminately. They are employed mainly as thatching 

 for houses, to cover large earth oven and in ancient times they Avere used on 

 beds, under the fine mats. The coconut mats are made as follows: 



A coconut frond, usually that of a young tree, is split longitudinally and the midrib, 

 to which the leaflets of either half are attached, is pared thin enough to be rather flexible. 

 Alternate leaflets are then directed forward and backward and interwoven in a simple checker- 

 work. The outer edge of the mat is finished by braiding the tips of the leaflets together in a 

 continuous longitudinal strip. The size of these mats naturally depends upon that of the frond 

 from which they are made, ordinary specimens being 14 to 20 inches wide and 6 to 12 feet 

 long. A common variation of this technique is to employ two half fronds placed side by side, 

 the midribs being joined together by twisting a leaflet around both at intervals of one to two 

 feet. The leaflets of both fronds are then interwoven to form a mat of single thickness like 

 that just described. A still further variation consists in placing two half leaves together with 

 the midribs at opposite edges and interweaving the leaflets in checkerwork. This last tech- 

 nique is rarely used at the present time. 



The better Marquesan mats, used principally upon beds, were made from 

 pandanus. These bed mats were as a rule long and comparatively narrow, being 

 intended to cover the space between the two coconut logs. They were of two 

 sorts, the distinction being apparently rne of shape and use. The mats upon 

 which the legs rested were called inocna, those upon which the body rested 

 kahnaa, those for the head p'ai p'ai. (For shape and arrangements of these mats 



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