184 G- A. J. VAN DER SANDE. 



the first row of stitches for the front, from the left to the right, at the same time interlooping 

 the stitches of front and back row, so that the bottom is closed, even when the suspensory cord 

 is removed. After the first turn, the rows are continued without interruption, therefore in a 

 spiral. The number of turns does not ahvays form a complète number; this dépends on the 

 place where the thread of the last row passes into the border. Finally the sling is made, 

 generally with the same thread. 



With this kind of stitch, presumably because it is closer and has smaller openings than 

 the previous one, a needle is used, consisting of the hollow phalange of the front limbs of 

 Pteropus (N°. 653, PL XXI, fig. 11). Of this the thinner end is sharpened to a point, and 

 near the other end a transverse opening is made, through which a couple of decimeters of 

 the thread is passed (PL XXI, fig. 4; see Edge Partington [1890, PL 290, N°. 11]). The 

 same needles are, according to objects in the Berlin Muséum, used on the Salomo Islands, 

 but also in British N. G. (MACGREGOR [1897, 50]) and K. W. Land (not in Astrolabe Bay; 

 BiRO [1901, 58]), where pierced fishbones are sometimes (FlNSCH [1888, 318]) used instead. 



On account of the greater amount of work and the larger quantity of material required, 

 thèse bags are much more valuable than those of the previous kind; often they are 

 decorated with coloured stripes, with seeds, beads and also with an elaborate border. It is 

 remarkable, that with thèse bags, see PL XXI, fig. 1, the work is done, two rows at a time, 

 therefore with two threads. The introduction of the coloured stripes indeed requires the use of 

 more than one thread. On N°. 647 it can be easily noticed, that the first coloured stripe, at 

 a certain place, is simply inserted between two spirals of white rows, and from this moment 

 the work is done with two threads and thus continued. The coloured stripes, each of the 

 height of one single stitch (therefore coloured rows), are by préférence applied in sets of 

 two, to an uneven number (3 — 5) and as a rule only occur on the front, viz. at the back the 

 coloured threads pass into white ones. Often (X os . 636, 637, 647 and 648) a group of stitches 

 ont of such a coloured row jumps over to a higher or lower white row, whilst then an equal 

 number of white stitches obtains a place in the coloured row. In this way Systems of small 

 patches are formed, as illustrated by De CLERCQ and SCHMELTZ [1893, 82, figs. 30 and 31], 

 the "painted pattern" (?), "dice design" of BiRO [1899, 30, PL VII, fig. 1]. It should hère be 

 noticed that both cords, the coloured as well as the uncoloured, can be traced uninterrup- 

 tedly in their patches, therefore pass constantly from one row to another; in this respect the 

 drawings of De CLERCQ, referred to above, are not accurate enough. To increase the outward 

 appearance of thèse bags they often hâve (N 05 . 635 — 637), like the women's bag of Asé 

 N°. 629, open spaces in the upper row. 



The following bags of the collection (N os . 638 — 641) are, on an average, somewhat smaller 

 than those of the previous category, but are used for the same purpose. The breadth is very 

 much larger than the depth, moreover, the slit-like opening is much shorter than the breadth of 

 the body of the bag and the bottom line, whereby a peculiar shape (fig. 143 and PL XX, fig. 1) 

 is obtained. But the real peculiarity of thèse bags is the loop-shaped stitch (fig. 117), 

 which difters from the western knitting stitch, in this way, that the loop of each stitch has 

 been turned 180 round its axis, in the direction in which the cord has been made, towards 

 the left. Thereby the cord has gained in strength. As each stitch grasps a higher placed one 

 round its base, a vertical arrangement and a vertical striping of the web (PL XXI, figs. 2 and 3) are 



