. Annals of the South African Museum = Annale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum. Natural history. 84 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM Sleeping-mats are made from a sedge, pate (a species of Cyperaceae). Four or five lengths of sedge are tied together to form multiple warps, and work pro- ceeds from the one side or the centre by twining the warps together with string, the ends of which may be secured with pegs (Fig. 29). The string is usually made from sisal, mokhoda, but formerly molete (Triumfetta pilosa) bark was used. Rows of twining are evenly spaced across the width of the mat. The ends of
. Annals of the South African Museum = Annale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum. Natural history. 84 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM Sleeping-mats are made from a sedge, pate (a species of Cyperaceae). Four or five lengths of sedge are tied together to form multiple warps, and work pro- ceeds from the one side or the centre by twining the warps together with string, the ends of which may be secured with pegs (Fig. 29). The string is usually made from sisal, mokhoda, but formerly molete (Triumfetta pilosa) bark was used. Rows of twining are evenly spaced across the width of the mat. The ends of the sedge are normally trimmed and finished off with a simple knot (Fig. SOB). The ends of the string are wound round the last warp a few times and knotted. Warp ends may be whipped with single-ply twisted sedge (Fig. 30A). The completed product is a thick and comfortable mat on which to sleep. Making sleeping-mats on a vertical wooden frame (Fig. 31) is a recent prac- tice which seems to have been introduced by Tsonga-speakers. Grooves are made at regular spaces along the horizontal beam of the frame to mark the posi- tion of the strings that are tied to the first length of sedge. Work proceeds by adding bundles of sedge that are twined together with the strings until a mat of the required length is made. During the work the strings are weighted with stones to keep the mat in position and the tension even. This is a much quicker way of making mats than the traditional method. The khegdyo mat for drying meal after stamping is no longer in regular use as most people now buy their maize-meal. It was made from lengths of thin sedge, khegdyo {Cyperus textilis), sewn together by a strand of twisted molete bark fibre passed through the sedge with a metal needle, lemao, in a series of rows. The edges were trimmed and wrapped with string (Fig. 30C). According to Krige (notes) this type of mat was adopted from Tsonga Fig. 31. New method of making a sleeping-mat on a wooden
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
