MANUFACTURES. 23 
The furnishings of the house are usually of the barest necessities, 
especially where the building has been placed in an exposed location and 
the occupants may be interrupted by visits from strangers. The cook- 
ing may be done on the ground and the food carried into the house for 
eating, or the women may employ the small burned-clay stove in the 
house and prepare the food on the floor. No chairs or stools are used. 
When resting the members of the family squat upon their haunches and 
can easily maintain this position for hours. ‘The posture in sitting is 
that of a squat on the full soles with the buttocks just clear of the ground 
or floor, knees and calves apart and the arms resting on the knees. 
When the buttocks rest upon the floor the calves are approximated 
to the thighs and the arms are brought forward over the knees. When 
the posture is free and there is no rest for the back the body inclines 
forward on the knees. ‘This posture is the same for men, women, and 
children. In general it is observed that the women maintain a wider 
angle between the legs when sitting and more frequently support the 
back. The family sleep on the floor, using grass or rattan mats and 
pillows made from tree cotton (kapok). 
The women boil rice between banana leaves in an earthenware 
vessel, or in an iron pot when it can be obtained. One leaf section is 
placed at the bottom and the other is used asa cover. When the water 
boils away, more is added until the rice is thoroughly cooked. 
MANUFACTURES. 
The women excel in the making of pottery and in the weaving of 
cloth. Both men and women engage in the construction of mats, 
baskets, hats, and screens from grass, bejuco, bamboo, bagakz (reed), and 
palma brava. ‘These mats are colored by dyeing and by burning. ‘The 
grass mats are colored with native dyes, and those made from heavier 
materials of bejuco, bamboo, bagak1, and palma brava are burned. Sev- 
eral colors (principally shades of red, yellow, and green) are produced 
with dyes, but these colors will fade in the sun and when washed. Both 
the coloring and burning are sometimes arranged so as to produce vari- 
ous designs and even to represent animals and birds which the people 
are accustomed to see. Light materials, such as leaves and cornhusks, 
are fastened to the mats in forms to represent the designs, and when dry 
are carefully burned off. To deepen the color, more material is laid on 
and greater heat produced. 
Cloth is made from the fiber of hemp, banana stalks, and the leaves 
of the pineapple. Baskets are made from the leaves of the pandan 
grass, of the burz palm, and of the nztu. 
Pillows are made from kapok (tree cotton) and from the catkins or 
fruit of a species of wild hop that grows as a low bush. 
Dyes are obtained from the leaves and roots of herbs and from 
the bark and leaves of trees. Safflower or alazor produces both red 
