THE RAY COLLECTION FROM HUPA RESERVATION. 221 



cups or skullcaps (Plate , Fig. — ), for only the squaws ordinarily 



wear auytliiug on tbeir heads, in which latter capacity they fit very 

 neatly. (Powers, Cont., Ill, 47.) 



In carrying her baby or a quantity of acorns, the squaw tills her deep 

 conical basket and suspends it on her back by a strap which passes 

 loosely around it and atliwart her forehead. (Powers Gout., Ill, 47.) 



The Round Valley Indians make their baby cradles of splints run- 

 ning up and down. x\ hood-shaped awning covers the face and also 

 keeps the baby from rolling out. Formerly new-born children declared 

 defective by the medicine man were put to death. On the birth of a 

 male child the father goes on a hunt and does not return until he has 

 secured much game. This is to make a mighty hunter of the baby boy. 

 The basketry at Kound Valley Reservation is made of the root of a 

 shrub which grows in swampy land. Mr. X. J. Pnrcell says that they 

 gather great bunches of this root, which they keep soaked in water until 

 it is needed for use. The roots are deftly split, and the inside scraped 

 with a sharp st«.nu^. or, recently, with a knife. The ribs are formed of a 

 tough twig, and the coiled sewing is done by means of a needle made 

 of antler or bone. This form of coiled weaving is unknown at Hupa 

 Reservation, the twined pattern being used exclusively. It should be 

 noted that the aSTorthern Tinne or Athapascan employs the coiled method 

 altogether. 



Mr. Purcell narrates a tradition of the Ukie Indians of Round Val- 

 ley Reservation which is connected with their basketry. 



Once upon a time everything was a vast botly of water, over which 

 all was darkness. Hovering over this expanse in the darkness was a 

 large white feather, the embodiment of one of their spiritual beings, 

 that iinally becomes weary and lights down into the water. Here was 

 a whirlpool in which the feather is carried around so rapidly that a 

 great foam is formed, which grows larger and larger until a floating 

 mass is aggregated ; of this the feather spirit forms the laud. 



Still all was dark, and the feather goes around among all the worlds 

 to look for light. On visiting one of these he was taken sick and was car- 

 ried by the hospitable inhabitants to the sweat-house. Here his eyes 

 became dazzled by tlie brilliant light, and on looking up he beheld 

 several beautiful suns hanging from the roof. The inhabitants one day 

 going off on a great hunt left two old men to wait on the sick visitor. 



These nurses fell asleep and the feather spirit carried off one of the 

 suns in a basket. Though hotly pursued he arrived safely home with 

 his ])rize. He carried it far to the east and set it low on the ground, 

 but this position did not suit him. So he moved it again and again, 

 and continued to move it about until our day. 



The pretty jar-shaped baskets in our collections, covered all over with 

 feathers, are made by coiling and catching in the shaft of a bright-colored 

 feather under each stitch. It was in one of these baskets the sun was 

 carried off by the feather spirit, 



