ABOEIGINAL AMERICAN BASKETRY. 



229 



and in ril)bod cloth, wherein a flexibh^ weft is worked on a rig-id warp. 

 Also, good examples are now produced by the Algonkin tribes of 

 New Eno-Iand and eastern Canada. 



P'or commercial purposes, wicker baskets precisely like those of the 

 Abenaki Indians are thus made. 



The wdiite-oak timber is brought to the 3'ard in sticks running from 

 6 to 40 inches in diameter and from 4 to IS feet long. It is Hrst sawed 

 into convenient lengths, then split with a maul and wedges into fourths 

 or sixteenths. The bark is then stripped ofl' with a drawing knife. 

 The next process is cutting it into bolts at what is called the splitting 

 horse, to be shaved down with a drawing knife into perfectly smooth, 

 even bolts of the width and length desired. These are then placed in 



Fig. 12. 



twilled and wicker mat. 



Hopi Indians, Arizona. 



After W. H. Holmes. 



the steam box and steamed for a half hour or so, which makes the 

 splints more pliable. They are taken thence to the splint knife, which 

 is arranged so that one person, by changing the position of the knife, 

 can make splints of any desired thickness, from that of paper to that 

 of a three-fourths-inch hoop. 



The 03"ster baskets and most small })askets have the bottom splints 

 laid one across another and are plainly woven in checker. 



But the round-bottomed baskets, used for grain and truck, are made 

 by taking from 10 to 18 ribs and laying them across each other at the 

 middle, in radiating form, and weaving around with a narrow thin 

 splint until the desired size for the bottom is reached, when the splints 

 are turned up and set in other baskets, about a dozen in a series, for 

 twenty-four hours. 



