88 



BULLETIN 87, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Fig. 179. — Top of twilled basket from 

 Bear Creek Cave. 



a short distance down the side and secured in the body of the rushes 

 and the other passes down the side and secures the braid binding, 

 and to it at intervals are secured the horizontal cords on which the 

 rushes are strung, shown in figure 178 e. The braid is represented at 

 g (fig, 178), and the cord, which is of dasylirion fiber, at / (fig. 

 178). Kush texture found in the Bear Creek Cave was made by 

 tying the strips together instead of threading them on cord, and 

 when the rush has disappeared through decay, often the cords alone 

 are found and resemble a cord chain which at first proves deceptive 



as to its real purpose. Mats made 

 by threading rushes with a wooden 

 or bone needle are manufactured 

 by the Winnebago, Chippewa, Qui- 

 naielt, and other northern tribes. 

 Twilled work. — In portions of 

 the Pueblo region it was customary 

 to wrap the dead in matting, and 

 frequently, when the soil was dry, 

 fragments of such mats were discovered by excavation. In some of 

 the caves, however, specimens of diagonal woven mats are very com- 

 mon. The art apparently has not survived in the Pueblo region, 

 but it is known that the Hopi practiced mat weaving up to a few 

 years ago. The baskets from the caves resemble in structure and 

 material those made by the Pueblos at the present time, but the cave 

 specimens are of very fine weaving, better in fact than any hereto- 

 fore found in America and comparable with the best work in Mexico. 

 (Fig. 179, Cat. No. 246160, U.S.N.M., Bear Creek Cave.) 



The first mention of diagonal 

 checker weaving was by Prof. 

 "\V. H. Holmes, who secured 

 specimens from cliff dwellings 

 of Colorado. 



A rim of a basket (Cat. No. 

 246160, U.S.N.M.), of excellent 

 workmanship, form,* and finish, Avas taken from one of the many 

 offering pits in the floor of the Bear Creek Cave. It is twilled of 

 dasylirion leaves or the leaves of a yucca, the strips smooth and of 

 uniform size. The modeling, if one may use the term, of the splints 

 into the form reached in this basket is a remarkable feat, and the 

 finish of the rim even more noteworthy, as is shown in figure 180. 

 (PI. 17, fig. 3.) The splints are bent over a rod and held by a sewing. 

 The free ends are then formed into a braid, which apparently has 

 neither beginning nor end, termed by Mason " false braid." The 

 process is very ingenious. A square tray with similar rim made of 



Fir,. ISO. 



Detail of basket rim from Bear 

 Creek Cave. 



