164 G- A. J. VAN DER SANDE. 



over in the temple I always found bundles as N°. 579, of the Pandanus aërial root fibre, 

 ime, and as vvell the making of the string (fig. 102) as the making of the nets by the youngsters 

 of the temple has been watched inside this building and behind the fence placed near it. 

 Possibly thèse boys work for the chief of the village and I remember that the chief himself 

 brought me one of those z'wz^-bundles ; it is also possible that the nets, made there, belong 

 to the whole village. The prepared ime-ûbres were already offered to TEYSSMANN (ROBIDÉ 

 VAN DER Aa [1879, 122]), who describes them as a long, white, fibrous material, prepared by 

 beating and washing the aërial roots of Pandanus. ERDWEG [1902, 333] gives an accurate 

 description of the manufacture, the fibre obtained having the full length of the original root. 

 According to FlNSCH [1888, 236] it exceeds ail our fibrous material in durability and length 

 of the thread, according to this author [Le. 217] 1.5m. maximum. The fibres from Tobâdi 

 (N°. 579), however, measure 4 and 4.65 m. — KONING [1903, 266] also praises the strength of 

 this material and compares the colour to that of Manila hemp fibre. Mr. J. M. DUMAS, who 

 accompanied the expédition, stated that the fibre of the fishing nets dried and moistened 

 alternatively, sooner crumbles off than would be expected. The strength and sustaining- 

 power is not very great, it being too woody and too brittle. KONING indicates the préparation 

 of the roots into fibres with the name of "hackling". I found a little instrument (N os - 580 — 582 

 PI. XX, fig. 16) not mentioned by him, nor by ERDWEG, but of gênerai use in H. B. and 

 which might be called "hackling stick". It consists of a cylindric pièce of wood, of the 

 kind called soâme (see page 139), sometimes at Tobâdi pronounced soâne, about 20 cm. long, 

 with a short but solid pièce of string, llgjai, fastened to it in the middle. The natives explained 

 to me that tearing off, imwaitje, the fibre, ime, from the aërial root, requires much strength 

 and, in order to protect the hands, the beginning of the bundles of fibres is tied to the 

 string of the little stick, which they take into their hands and now by pulling strongly they 

 tear off the whole length of the fibre. The hackling stick is always carved with the same 

 ornament, âne, such as I found on the handle of a wooden knife (N°. 56, PI. I, fig. 20) and 

 on the middle pièce of an arrow (N°. 748), but I cannot in the least make out what it means. 

 In a man's bag from Ingrâs I found some pièces of ime-stnng, each 1.25 m. long (N°. 584), 

 probably destined for hackling sticks, but indicated with the name of didai. 



Fig. 102 shows the Tobâdi temple boys preparing twine for the nets. The z'w/^-fibres 

 are fastened by the middle to the vertical stick. The sitting boy on the right holds the large 

 bundle of fibres which hâve to be prepared, the two others are twisting them. I saw how every 

 time the standing boy separated 5 fibres, which were divided into two strands, one of two and 

 one of three threads, how each of the two strands was twisted round to the left over a length of 

 about 1 d.m. and then the two were allowed to roll together to the right, forming a rather loose 

 string. Two of such strings fastened to the vertical stick, and coming from the left were alternately 

 rolled on the right thigh with the palm of the right hand. The rolling movement always is 

 towards the knee, with the sun; the left hand has the task to catch the string, when it has 

 reached the knee, and bring it back again higher up the thigh. When the first string has been 

 sufficiently twisted, it is for a short time fastened on the great toe of the left foot (see also 

 HaGEN [1899, PI. 25]); now a second string is twisted and then both are rolled up together to 

 the left, against the sun. Nearly the same manner of twine making is described by PFEIL 

 [1899, 87] from the Bismarck Archipelago, and MACGREGOR [1897, 88] aludes to something similar. 



