90 BULLETIN 87, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



of slender grass stems. Generality they have two rods side by side, 

 surmounted by the welt, which engages the stitches by which the 

 coils are held together. Two remarkable features are possessed by 

 these baskets — they are constructed with the " lazy stitch," which 

 has heretofore only been observed in southern California, and they 

 are painted in red, black, and green on the exterior. On several 

 occasions, during excavations in ancient Pueblo cemeteries, thin 

 films of color accompanying decayed vegetable texture have been 

 found. These were evidently remains of baskets. The painted coil 

 baskets have an orifice in the center of the bottom, designedly left 

 during the weaving, and for the purpose of placing them on a rod 

 or paho to be set up in a shrine. (See fig. 317.) The materials of 

 these baskets appear to be willow and bark. 



The second variety of coiling is the one usually employed by 

 Indians when they wish to weave an impervious, serviceable basket. 

 The strongest and most beautiful baskets are made in this way. Not 

 all have been decorated with textile ornament, but a few examples 

 have been painted. (PI. 17, figs. 2, 4, 5.) They are not of the best 

 workmanship, but a fragment found in the great ceremonial cave 

 on Blue River shows what these ancient Pueblos could do, and but 

 for this remnant we would not be able to say that the celebrants at 

 the cave shrine made basketry which rivals the best California art. 



The charred remains of a beautifully sewed coiled basket were 

 found in the great Spur Eanch ruin, near Luna, New Mexico. It 

 shows 17 stitches to the inch, and the foundation is two rods and a 

 splint. (Cat. No. 231919, U.S.N.M.) 



RELIGIOUS OBJECTS. 



DEPOSIT OF OFFERINGS IN CAVES. 



Throughout the region of caves or more or less deep rock shelters, 

 especially prevalent in localities w^here tuff formations occur, are 

 found deposits of ceremonial offerings consisting of bows and arrows, 

 painted rods, and other material such as is described in this paper. 

 These caves were secret places or more properly shrines like those 

 which the present Pueblos use either near their villages or in distant 

 places on mountains or at sacred lakes, springs, etc. The ancient 

 shrines differ in importance, some of them containing few deposits; 

 others contain great quantities of offerings, such as the one at Bear 

 Creek, which was used for a very long time and seems to have been 

 a sacred place for the inhabitants of a large territory. The northern- 

 most ceremonial cave of this character known to the writer was dis- 

 covered near the Pueblo of Zuni, New Mexico, and the material from 

 it, consisting of crooks, rounded rods, etc., is displayed in the Museum 

 of the Brooklyn Institute, New York. 



