is bored. The potter inserts her hand, which holds a smooth stone, into this hole, and proceeds to enlarge the hole by turning the stone round and round the inner surface of the clay. Her other hand holds a small flat stick, with which she shapes and smoothens the outer surface. Having hollowed out the clay piece and finalized its shape, she then puts incisions or ornamental marks on the outside, using her fingers, a pointed stick, or a wooden stamp engraved with a simple design. The pot is made to dry out under the sun, after which it is fired, usually over hot coals. The baked pots are then ready to hold water or boil rice. Several types of baskets may be found in a typical Subanon house. The women shape round baskets from materials of different colors, such as the nito vine, split rattan, bamboo, and sometimes wood or tree bark. The bark is slit, folded, and shaped to form a cylinder, whose bottom and sides are all of one piece. The top may be closed either with the same piece of bark, or with a piece of some other material. There are also bags woven to carry all sorts of things. These are usually made from the leaves of the screw pine, buri, or nipa. Cloth weaving is basically similar to the style of the neighboring Muslim region. The weaving loom is set up inside the house. Cotton thread—spun from cotton by women using the distaff crafted by men—and abaca fiber are commonly used. Before cotton was introduced by Muslim and Christian traders, the Subanon used abaca fiber for their clothing and blankets. The strands or fibers are first dyed before being put in the loom. In this process, several strands are bound together at intervals by other fibers, forming bands of various widths. Thus tightly bound, these are dipped into the dye, then laid out to dry. The effect is that the bound part retains the natural color of the fiber, while the rest has the color of the dye. The process can be repeated to achieve various designs or color combinations. The favorite dye among the Subanon is red, with black also being widely used. Native dyes from natural substances, which give a flat or matte color, and aniline dyes are used in the process. The finer metalcraft possessed by the Subanon, such as bladed