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Samoan Material Culture

Figure 166.—Dye strainer (to tau 'o'a), plait technique:

Figure 166.—Dye strainer (to tau 'o'a), plait technique:

Figure 166.—Dye strainer (to tau 'o'a), plait technique:

a, the lower border is carried on by bending up each newly added sinistral weft (3 to 7) to act as a dextral (1' to 6'); b, To form the right corner, the last weft (6') which has been turned in under the sinistral (7) to act as a dextral is again turned through a right angle to function as a sinistral. It has been crossed with the check technique at the working edge. c, The sinistral (7) is now turned through two right angles to pass under the dextral (5) and along the working edge as a sinistral (7'). The corner is established and the other dextrals (5', 4') successively turned into the left to define the right edge of the band. The full width of the band having been obtained by defining the left and right corners and the side edges, the plaiting proceeds along that width. The same width is maintained by turning the wefts in as they reach the side edges. The width varies as stated from 12 to 14 inches, the greater width in the middle being obtained by using wider wefts and not increasing the number. When the length of 7 feet 4 inches is reached, the wefts are plaited into three-ply braids. At the finishing edge of the band figured," there were 70 wefts including dextrals and sinistrals. These were plaited into 12 braids, the number of wefts varying in each braid from 4 to 9. Plaiting commenced on the left of the even edge by taking a number of wefts, dividing them into three plies, and plaiting the braid which ranged from 16 inches to 38 inches. This was continued across the edge until all the wefts were used up and the 12 braids thus formed.