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POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
wide, and nine or twelve feet long, but some are 
twelve feet wide, and sixty or eighty, or even a 
hundred yards long. Mats of this size, however, 
are only made for high chiefs, and in the prepara¬ 
tion, perhaps, the females of several districts have 
been employed. They are kept rolled up, and 
suspended in some part of the chief’s dwelling, 
more for the purpose of displaying his wealth, 
and the number of his dependents, than for actual 
use. 
The kinds of leaf least liable to crack, are se¬ 
lected, and, for the purpose of sleeping upon, or 
even spreading on a floor, the use to which we 
generally applied them, the mats look neat, and 
last a considerable time. Several kinds of fine 
matting, ornamented with bright stained rushes 
interwoven with the others, were formerly made as 
articles of dress for the kings, or presents to the 
gods; but in this department of labour they were 
always inferior to the Sandwich Islanders, whose 
variegated mats are superior to any I have seen in 
the Pacific. Weaving of mats, with beating and 
staining of cloth, was the chief occupation of the 
females. A large portion of the property of the 
people consisted in mats and cloth, which also 
constituted part of their household furniture. 
A variety of other articles were, however, neces¬ 
sary to the furnishing of their houses, but these 
were manufactured by the men. Next to a sleep¬ 
ing mat, a pillow was considered essential. This 
was of hard wood, and often exceedingly rude, 
though sometimes ingeniously wrought, resembling 
a short low stool, nine inches or a foot in length, 
and four or five inches high. The upper side was 
curved, to admit the head; the whole pillow, which 
they call tuaurua, is cut out of a single piece 
