Basket kato mosi kaka

Humphrey No. 132: ‘Another, much larger [basket] having on one side the triangles placed and edged as above except that there are also in this, one, two, or three rows of the beads running lengthways in black Triangles. The Triangles of the other side also are differently placed, and some of them slightly connected by a black stripe, they are edged by the beads but have no Rows of them in the middle as those of the opposite side have, the edge of the mouth is differently wrought with the black & brown Cordage, the string is also partly coloured. From the same [Friendly] Islands.’

The basket is made of coconut fibre and has a rectangular shape. At one side, the pattern features three vertical rows of alternating triangular sections of either a brown or blackish-brown colour. The triangles are bordered by rows of small pieces of shell, as well as small brown pieces intertwined into the basket. The darker sections are decorated in a similar fashion, dividing each triangle horizontally into four parallel stripes of varying lengths. At the other side, there is a different pattern with respect to the arrangement of triangles. There are horizontal rows of two or three dark triangles each pointing upward, the spaces in between filled with two or three lighter triangles pointing downward. All are bordered by rows of small pieces of shell. The basket has two handles through which a plaited cord is pulled. Inken Köhler, Ulrike Rehr, Gundolf Krüger