Straw Bag

Seom, or straw bag, is a straw bowl used to store grains or fodder, and was widely used before the invention of gamani (straw bag). Resembling an ordinary gamani, it was roughly woven and both ends were inserted inward before being sewn up. Its size was referred to by the number of warp threads, and generally five-warp and seven-warp seom were used, and seven-warp seom could contain 30 mal (1 mal = 18 ℓ). One person could weave seven seom per day, but a seom required more straw than a gamani, and three gamani could be made with the straw needed to produce one seom, and one seom weighed around 10 kg alone. Those used to store charcoal were separately referred to as a charcoal seom. A charcoal seom was made of a mixture of brush clover branches and sorghum straw, and resembled an apple crate with a narrower width. After putting charcoal into the charcoal seom, straw would be stuffed on top as a makeshift lid. The term “seom” was used as a unit to measure volume, just like gamani is used in the present day. One seom is 10 times of one mal, a measurement used for measuring grains or liquids such as wine, and two gama (gamani) equal one seom. Since a seom was loosely woven and structurally weak, it had to be wrapped horizontally and vertically with string to carry grains.