ABORIGINAL AMERICAN BASKETRY. 279 



IV. ORNAMENTATION ON BASKETRY 



There's magic in the web of it: 

 A sibyl that had numbered in the world 

 The sun to make two hundred compasses, 

 In her proplietic fury sewed the work. 



—Othello, III: 4. 



Onuimentatioii in and on l)ask('tiT is to be studied with three teach- 

 ers or guides — the technician, the artist, and the folklorist. With 

 the first named are learned the varied niatei-ials as to color and texture, 

 the technical elements and tlieir forms, and the methods of assem])ling 

 them. The artist will show how these elements, on the one hand, open 

 possibilities for a'sthetic effects, and how, on the other hand, the 

 stitches and decussations handicap attempts at free-hand drawing. 

 The folklorist examines the pictography, the totemism, the lore and 

 mythology of the ornamentation, with a view of putting the student 

 into intellectual and spiritual relationship with the l)asket maker. 

 Without her l)asket-making would ])e merely a trade or calling, and 

 the art student would ))e utterly helpless in detecting the alphabet of 

 design. This phase of the subject will be elaborated in the chapter on 

 symbolism. 



Great help in this investigation would be derived from a visit to the 

 humble artist to watch the processes through which the line effects 

 have been elaborated. To this inquiry special attention will here be 

 given. It should l)e added in passing that in producing her effects the 

 basket maker nuist l)e fully ei^uipped for her work l)efore the ffrst 

 stitch or check is attempted. The painter, the potter, and the sculp- 

 tor may add tinishing touches or make corrections after the wovk is 

 done, but the basket maker is like the musician — every detail in the 

 production must be attended to correctly at the time. There is no 

 chance to go Ijack and remedy defects. Decoration on basketry is 

 studied under the following heads: 



A. Form and structure. 



Jj. Ornamentation through color. 



Form and color may Ije studied (1) on the l)asket as a whole; (2) on 

 the minutest structural elements; and (8) in the designs upon the sur- 

 -face. These will be taken up in order and treated in their relation to 

 the sense of the beautiful, present in the humble Indian woman's mind 

 as well as in those more reffned. (xrowth, progress from pure natural- 

 ism to greater and greater artiffciality, ma}" be observed here <iuite as 

 marked as in other activities. To illustrate what is here said by way 

 of introduction, Plate 30 represents a coiled basket of the Mission 

 Indians in the collection of G. Wharton James. The noteworthy 

 characteristics of this l)asket l)owl are the effects produced by variety 

 in designs and color in shades, as well as by symmetry of outline. 

 The sharp contrast seen in the designs are due not to modern dyes, but 



