Figure 18.
Bark Beater.
Bark Cloth.—Bark cloth is still in common use for men's headbands and for clouts. It is secured from the same trees as the rope material, but wider strips are taken, and it is customary to beat the bark thoroughly before it is removed from the wood. It is then split to the desired thickness, after which it is beaten with wooden or bone mallets (gīkai), which are generally grooved transversely ([Fig. 18]). The cloth produced is soft and pliable, but is not of the fineness of tapa, and it is always in comparatively narrow pieces. In no instance Page 421was the operator seen to beat two strips together to gain greater breadth or to repair breaks.
Basket Making.—In most districts the men are the basket weavers, but in some towns, especially of Ilocos Norte, the women are skilled in this industry (Plate [LXVII]). The materials used are rattan, which may be gathered at any time, or bamboo, which is cut only during the dry season and under the waning moon. It is firmly believed that boring insects will not injure bamboo cut at this time, and it is known that the dry period stalks are the strongest.
The tools employed are a short knife or a miniature head-axe and an awl. With the former the operator scrapes the outer surface, and then splits the tube into strips of the desired width and thickness. A certain number of these strips, which are to be used for decoration, are rubbed with oil, and are held in the smoke of burning pine or of rice-straw until a permanent black is obtained.[15]
Five weaves are recognized by the Tinguian, but they are really variations of two—checkerwork and the diagonal or twilled.
The first and most simple is known as laga, the technic of which is the passing of each element of the weft under one and over one of the warp elements. Where the warp and weft are of uniform size, as in mats, it is impossible to distinguish the one from the other, but in many cases the weft is the smaller. Fish traps and storage baskets for mangoes and cotton are generally of this type ([Fig. 19], Nos. 1 and 2).
A variation of the laga known as minmináta—“many eyes”—([Fig. 19], No. 3), is found in certain types of carrying baskets, the woven tops of hats, and the like. Here the warp is crossed, and the weft passes through it in regular order so as to produce hexagonal openings.
Another variant is known as kaláwat[16] ([Fig. 19], No. 4). In this the warp stems are in threes. Starting from A they are bent down, pass over and under similar sets of three, curve on themselves or other warp stems so as to leave open spaces between. The rattan wall-hangers for coconut shell dishes are usually in this weave.