92 BULLETIN 134, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



In writing about basket making Wafer 15 says : 



The girls also twist cotton-yarn for fringes, and prepare canes, reeds, or 

 palmetto-leaves, as the boys also do, for basket-making. But the making up 

 the baskets is the men's work, who first dye the materials of several curious 

 lively colors, and then mix and weave them very prettily. They weave little 

 baskets like cups also very neat; with the twigs wrought so very fine and 

 close, as to hold any liquor, without any more ado, having no lacquer or 

 varnish. And they as ordinarily drink out of these woven cups, as out of 

 their calabashes, which they paint very curiously. 



This form of close weave basket is no longer made by any of the 

 Darien Indian tribes. 



Carrying baskets. — An oblong carrying basket, " pirkakka " 

 (Tule), with hand bail, '"1 ttuba," (Tule), from the San Bias 

 coast, stands 10.9 cm. (4.3 in.) high and is 21.6 cm. (8.5 in.) in 

 length (Cat. No. 327574, U.S.N.M., pi. 23, No. 1). Oblong in form, 

 it is designed for carrying a cake or bar of prepared cacao, 

 "siyagwa kwamakkaledi," (Tule), (pi. 23, No. 2). The material 

 employed in this basket is the split leaf of the tacca palm. The 

 combination of diaper and twillwork in crossing filaments of natural 

 straw color and others dyed in the jet black pigment of the Genipa 

 americana produces a surface design variously spaced, of alternat- 

 ing rows of black and white diamond shaped figures. Encircling 

 the center is a series of T-shaped figures in black. The bottom sur- 

 face section of the basket has a lineal zigzag design of white ele- 

 ments filled in with closing wedges of solid black color. 



The marginal portion of the basket is of different weave from the 

 lateral surfaces and bottom, and is built up of an openwork hexa- 

 gonal design surmounted by a marginal stake built up of several 

 thicknesses of split palm petiole and twined about with the diago- 

 nally placed elements of which the hexagonal work is made up. 

 The bail is built up in a manner similar to the rim of the basket. 

 Some of these oblong hand baskets, "pirkakka" (Tule), have a 

 flaring margin with constricted sides which flare out again just 

 above the base. The cake of cacao just fits inside the basket. 



Fire fans. — A basketry fan, " pigbi," (Tule) is made of " nagwar " 

 (Tule), the split petiole of a tacca palm. Those in the collection 

 average 39.2 cm. (15.4 in.) in length by 20.3 cm. (7.9 in.) in width. 

 A similar fan is used by the Choco as a fire fan. It is shaped in 

 breastbone pattern in twilled and diaper weave forming a design 

 in natural straw color, which is contrasted with the under split 

 side of the crossed element. The elements terminate at the center 

 of the fan, where they are joined and gathered into a breastbone- 

 like handle, which, throughout its prehensile projection, is wrapped 



15 A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America, p. 153. 



