Liiifoii — The Marquesas Islands 383 



to friends, that she had gathered a few of the women together and was teaching 

 them to weave coarse mats. This statement is so remarkable, implying as it does 

 an ignorance of the art, that it is difficult to account for unless mat weaving, 

 like certain other industries, had become more or less localized so that the valley 

 in which the missionaries settled bought its mats ready made. 



BASKETS 



The manufacture of all Ijut the simplest baskets had been discontinued in 

 the Marquesas in 1920 and only two types of basket were remembered by the in- 

 formants questioned. Both of these were made from coconut fronds. The 

 simplest type koaJio (PI. Lxvi, D) is still manufactured, and is made as follows: 



Four short sections of coconut midrib, to each of which three leaflets are attached, are 

 placed two at either end of the proposed basket and the leaflets interwoven in checkerwork 

 to form the broad, oval bottom. Four similar sections, bearing- two or three leaflets each, 

 are then placed in pairs above the first four and their leaflets interwoven with the ends of 

 those forming the bottom, making the sides. Three of the bottom leaflets are left projecting 

 beyond the basket at either end and these are braided and the braid carried up over the out- 

 side of the basket to the rim. The rim is finished like the edge of an ordinary mat. When 

 the body of the basket is finished, a bunch of tips project from either end. The braids from 

 the bottom are combined with these tips and the whole plaited into a broad flat cord. The 

 cords from the two ends are tied together above the center of the basket to form a handle, and 

 the receptacle is ready for use. Baskets of this sort can be made in a few minutes. They 

 are used principally for carrying fruit. 



The more elaborate type of coconut basket called liakete (PI. Lxvi, £) is 

 no longer regularly manufactured; the specimen figured was made to order by an 

 old woman who remembered the process : 



Young fronds just beginning to unfold were used and the two sides of each leaflet 

 were folded together before weaving so that the midrib lay along one edge of the strip. The 

 basket was made as follows : The frond was taken and prepared as for mat weaving. Sec- 

 tions 3 to 5 feet long, depending on the size of the desired basket, were then cut from the 

 corresponding portions of the two halves, and the leaflets of each section interwoven tightly 

 at the base^^ each leaflet passing over two in the direction of its natural angle with the mid- 

 rib. All the leaflets of each section thus ran in the same direction. The midribs of the two 

 sections were then placed together in such a way that the leaflets of one ran at right angles 

 to the leaflets of the other and were bent into a long oval, their ends being tied together with 

 short pieces of bark string. This formed the rim of the basket. The leaflets of the two 

 sections were then interwoven in a twilled pattern, over three and under three, those of one 

 section forming the warp and those of the other section the weft. This weaving was con- 

 tinued down to the juncture of the bottom with the sides, where there was a narrow strip 

 twilled over two and under two. The bottom, which was very narrow, was made in two 

 thicknesses. The inner layer was formed by interweaving the warp strips of the two sides in 

 a simple checkerwork, their tips being bent back and plaited together in a long strip beneath 

 the checkerwork. The outer layer of the bottom was formed by bringing the weft strips of 

 the two sides together along the middle of the bottom and there plaiting them into a flat 

 braid. The braids from both the inner and outer layers were concealed between the two sec- 

 tions of the double bottom, but their tips projected upward, one at either end, on the inside of 

 the basket. No handle was made, the basket being suspended by cords passed under the rim 

 at either end. Baskets of this sort were used principally for carrying fish. 



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