CULTURE OF PEOPLE OF SOUTHEASTERN PANAMA 93 



with a crossed roll of close weave lacing, giving to the handle a 

 smooth surface finish (Cat. No. 327536, U.S.N.M., pi. 24, No. 1). 



A similar basketry fan from the San Bias coast (Cat. No. 327536, 

 U.S.N.M., pi. 24, No. 3), called "pigbi" by the Tule Indians, is 

 made from the split palm petiole of the "' nagwar " palm. The 

 breastbone handle is wrapped in a composite cross roll with filaments 

 similar to the elements making up the body of the fan. The appear- 

 ance of the wrapped prehensile portion of the handle is quite 

 pleasing. 



The basketry fan of the Choco is not always similar to those of 

 the Tule just described. One that has a different type of handle 

 was collected by H. Pittier among the Choco Indians of the 

 Sambu Valley, South Darien (Cat. No. 2T2588J U.S.N.M., pi. 24, 

 No. 2). It is 38 cm. (14.8 in.) in length, and is 18.8 cm. (7.4 in.) 

 wide at the base. It. is made from the split petiole of the tacca palm 

 and fashioned in twilled diaper weave. The decorative designs 

 in natural straw color form banded squares surrounding blocks of 

 white, with the split side of the filament showing. The handle of 

 the fan is the distinctive part and is a continuation of the blade, 

 the lateral edges of which are bent over and finished in a tubular 

 form, 5 cm. in diameter, with the basketry elements terminating, 

 and closing the proximal ends of the handle where they are bent 

 inward. 



Telescoping baskets and hourglass decorative design. — Twilled 

 telescoping baskets, "kakku " (Tule), with decorative surface design 

 resembling an hourglass, are plaited in two similar halves, one 

 slightly larger than the other, so that the former when inverted 

 will act as the cover for the latter. They thus together constitute 

 a small pack basket carried and much prized by the women. The 

 proper way is for each half to be made of identical pattern, but 

 sometimes the basket maker will make the base of the lower com- 

 plement wholly in the twilled or " herringbone " weave. 



It is to be observed, writes W. E. Roth, 16 that upon the number 

 of the hourglass patterns will depend the length as compared with 

 the breadth of the finished article. With a single pattern the base 

 will be a square, with a multiple one it will be more or less oblong. 

 When once these figures are completed, the free ends of the project- 

 ing strands are plaited throughout in the ordinary twilled pattern 

 of one under and over three, so as to form the foundation, exhibiting 

 a pattern of concentric rectangular frames — the well-known "her- 

 ringbone" type, which in the larger baskets may be broken up and 

 subdivided. The base completed, a start is made with any one of its 

 corners, where the projecting strands of the two contiguous edges 



10 38th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1917, p. 347. 



