FIG. 22.

FIG. 23.

FIG. 24.  TYPES OF WEAVING USED IN BASKETRY.

In the great majority of baskets the surface is divided into three parallel zones or decorative bands.  These are produced by making a slight variation in the weave, by the use of blackened strips of bamboo and rattan, or by substituting in their place the black cuticle of a fern.

As a rule the women of this tribe are not good potters and take little pride in their work.  In some districts the art has been entirely lost, and the people depend on the coast natives for their cooking utensils.  At the village of Bansalan the women were found still to be proficient in their work.  After the dampened clay had been carefully kneaded in order to remove lumps and gravel, the bottom of the jar was moulded with the fingers and placed on a dish which was turned on a bit of cloth or a board and answered the purpose of a potter’s wheel.  As the dish was turned with the right hand the operator shaped the clay with the fingers of the left adding fresh strips of material from time to time until the desired size was obtained.  The final shaping was done with a wooden paddle and the jar was allowed to dry, after which it was smoothed off with a stone.  When ready for firing it was placed in the midst of a pile of rubbish, over which green leaves were placed to cause a slow fire.

Other dishes are made by splitting a cocoanut in half and removing the “meat.”  This is readily accomplished by the use of a scraper fitted with a rough iron blade (Fig. 25), over which the concave side or the half nut is drawn.  The cocoanut meat is used for food and oil.

FIG. 25.  COCOANUT SCRAPER.

A little later we shall describe the active part woman takes in the planting and care of the fields, but now we shall take up in some detail the industry in which she stands pre-eminent, the preparation and weaving of hemp.

The hemp ordinarily stripped by the men is considered too fine to be used in the manufacture of clothing, so a smaller stripping device is employed by the woman (Plate XX).  On this she cleans the outer layers of the hemp stalk, from which a stronger and coarser thread can be obtained.  The fiber is tied in a continuous thread and is wound onto a reel.  The warp threads are measured on sharpened sticks driven into a hemp or banana stalk, and are then transferred to a rectangular frame (Plate XXI).  The operator, with the final pattern in mind, overties or wraps with waxed threads, such portions of the warp as she desires to remain white in the completed garment.  So carefully does she wrap these sections, that, when the thread is removed from the frame and placed in the liquid dye, no portion of the coloring matter penetrates to the portions thus protected.  If a red color is desired the root of the sikarig[1] palm is scraped and the scrapings placed in bark vats filled with cold water.  The thread is first washed in,