) for about two hours, the
mixture of ashes and water covering the buri during the process. The
bundles are then removed from the vessel, wrapped in a bayon, and put
in a dark place for 48 hours. The segments are then taken out and hung
in the wind for about three hours to dry, and are smoothed and rolled.

The preliminary steps in the production of "black straw" (a cold
dark gray) are the same in the making of the green material. The
segments taken from the bayon, as described above, are buried three
days in black mud, in a rice paddy, for instance. The material is then
washed in plain water until clean, and is then boiled for two hours
in a mixture of one-half ganta each of the leaves of talisay, indigo,
and tiagkot (see dyes), with a sufficient quantity of water to cover
the mixture. The whole should be stirred at frequent intervals. After
two hours the strips are removed and hung in the wind for five hours
to dry. Then they are smoothed and rolled.

Types of Buri Mats.

The Bontoc Peninsula of Tayabas produces great quantities of baling
mats and bayons. Bayons are also produced in large quantities in
Capiz province. Other localities are of less importance.

Buri sleeping mats are made from the northernmost part of Luzon,
in the Bangui Peninsula, to the Sulu Archipelago. For the most part
they are woven in small numbers here and there, in the different
towns, sometimes for use in the household in which they are made,
often for local trade in the barrios or municipalities. In nearly
every province there is at least one town in which the production
of buri mats reaches provincial commercial importance. A number
of municipalities produce them for a fairly extensive trade with
neighboring provinces. In most cases these are ordinary products,
usually decorated with a few colors in lines or checks of dyed straws,
either woven in or embroidered on the mat.

In one region, however, buri mats have reached such a degree of
perfection in their weaving and decoration as to have become a
distinctive product known throughout the Islands. These are the
Romblon buri mats, and they are produced throughout the islands of
Romblon. Their central market is the town of the same name. They are
distinctive because of the fine white and colored materials used,
and of the designs which are woven in them. In the designing, not
only checks and line borders but also plaids appear, and many of the
effects produced by floating straws are