Plate LV. Detail of a woven-in design.
The ordinary mat is usually about 2 meters by 1½ meters, though smaller and larger ones are made. During the past three years the weavers have been encouraged to make mats about the size of an ordinary cot and to use no more than two colors in weaving them. A few mats suitable for placing under dining tables are also made.
Sulat weavers produce fewer mats than those of Basey but make them of fine, closely woven straw. Most of the mats with a woven-on border come from Sulat. These people, while able to produce a fine, soft, pliable mat, can not embroider decorations on them nearly so well as do the people of Basey.
Samar mats wear well. Wall mats last indefinitely and sleeping mats are used from two to ten years or more.[25]
Plate LVI. An embroidered mat with simple decorations in comparison with most mats from Basey.
The Marketing of Basey Mats.
Plate LVII. Small table mats.
The port of Tacloban, Leyte, due to its proximity to Basey, is the chief center for the distribution of Samar mats. As soon as the mats are completed the weavers take them across the straits to Tacloban, where they are sold to Chinese brokers, transients and residents, both American and native. Few ships leave Tacloban that do not carry away from 5 to 20 mats; often they take away as many as 50, the amount generally depending upon the number of passengers aboard the boat. Some of the ship’s employees are regular customers of the weavers and buy mats at stated prices to sell them again at a reasonable profit at Manila and other ports of call. Besides, there is quite a sale of mats in the towns of Samar, Leyte, and Cebu through vendors, residents of Basey, who secure the mats in their home town at low prices and sell them at a profit. These persons usually deal only in the mats, and sell them for cash, not trading for other articles. Plaid Basey mats are on sale in nearly all the Chinese general merchandise stores of Manila.