ing 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. [30]

The Marketing of Basey 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.

As yet there is little supervision by brokers in Basey. The
mat industry there needs but the introduction of some system of
supervision by brokers to regulate the size, quality, design and
color scheme of the mats, and a foreign market to become a much more
extended industry. The schools have already done much toward improving
workmanship and design; it must remain for individual enterprise,
however, to get in touch with foreign demand and supervise the weaving
of mats to suit it. [31]

Bohol Mats. [32]

Tikug mats are made in large numbers in Bohol. The straw for the most
part is finer than that used in Samar and the patterns are chiefly
stripes and checks. Very little embroidering is attempted.

Bohol mats are used principally for sleeping purposes. In northern
Bohol there is scarcely a family that has not three or more large
mats, which are rolled up and laid away during the day time and are
unrolled upon t