( 7 ) 
Where flat embroidery is to be employed a pattern is 
first cut out in paper and the outlines of this are traced 
on to the cloth. Pillow-ends and other articles are 
sometimes ornamented by stitching a cut pattern of 
gilt paper to them. 
Mat-making it is not easy to give a non-technical 
and mat description of these two industries and 
baskets. at the same time impart much informa- 
tion. Most Malay women of the villages 
know something about mat-making, for mats are an 
essential article of native house furniture and are in 
daily use for a variety of purposes. There are praying- 
mats — made and reserved for this use only — sleeping 
mats, mats of coarser texture with which the floors 
of the living rooms are covered, as well as rough mats 
upon which rice is dried, and ceremonial embroidered 
mats, such as I have described above. The mats which 
are spread in the living rooms answer the purposes of 
both chairs and tables, for it is upon them that the 
Malay sits cross-legged, or squats, and upon them 
also that his women-folk lay his meals. Hence there 
is a necessity for clean feet on entering a Malay house, 
and those who do so, if they be bare-footed, wash 
their feet at the jar which stands by the steps or, 
if they are wearing shoes, remove them before 
entering. 
The material of which nearly all Malay mats are 
made is the leaf of the Screw-pine (Pandanus) cut into 
strips. Two species of screw-pine are used, one being 
preferred to the other as lending itself to finer work. 
Before they are ready for plaiting, the leaves go through 
a variety of processes including trimming, drying, being 
split into strips, dressing, pounding, being soaked in 
water, and a final softening and polishing. 
df 2^ 
