ABORIGINAL AMERICAN BASKETRY. 285 



are havino- the la.st word at this point in the adoption of correct a?sthetic 

 forms purely European. Plate 41 shows a group of Kern Count}^ 

 bottlenecks in the collection of E. L. McLeod. Plate 4:^2 illustrates a 

 lot of Apache ollas in the collection of J. W. Benham, of New York 

 City. 



That these pretty jar shapes have little sio-niticance so far as tribes 

 are concerned is shown by the fact that they occur all the way from 

 Point Barrow in Alaska to southern California. 



(e) This class includes all odd forms whatever. The}^ are frequently 

 made in imitation of objects that struck the Indian woman's fancy. 

 The very best examples of this are the imliricated l)askets of the 

 Eraser-Columbia drainage. A good collection of them tells the whole 

 story accuratel}', starting from the conical forms, with foundation of 

 splints and bottoms in shape of a watch spring to ))e found on the 

 Klikitat and the Thompson Kiver and ending below and al)ove the 

 Eraser mouth with Hat and uniform foundation and straight lines in 

 the bottom, the last slia})es in the series being nothing more than 

 imitations of Hudson Bay Company's packages, trunks, cradles, and 

 so on. These ])izarre shapes are not contined to the mere imitation 

 of white men's devicc^s. The demands of ceremony and religion 

 re(iuired special forms of basketr}'. (See Plates 4;), 1.57-17!^.) 



Einally, ornamentation in th(» form of the basket as a whole has 

 kei)t ]jace with the nudtiplication of uses. The tirst contact of the 

 Indians with the whites created new desires in their minds. Eurther- 

 more, it was not long before they discovered their best interests to lie 

 in the direction of service to their conquerors. The supply of new 

 wants and responses to the demands just mentioned would necessarily 

 break in upon the ancient regime. Not at tirst, however, did the new 

 object respond to the best workmanship. Plate 44 represents a i^art 

 of the outfit of a Tlinkit Indian in the service of the Russians. Among 

 his other accouterments there must be a receptacle for ammunition. 

 This nuist conform to those already in use. The result is the three 

 forms shown in the plate. Eirst, a small jar-shaped holder with a bas- 

 ketry cap-like cover; second, a bullet holder, in which the one basket 

 fits exactly over another; third, a combination in which the cover is 

 attached to the basket l)y means of a running string. All of these 

 forms are shown in the plate. While draw ing attention to these de- 

 signs it will be well to examine their characteristics. The cover of No. 

 2 is plain twined weaving of the old-fashioned sort. The attractive- 

 ness of the work is in its regularity. ))oth of vertical lines and hori- 

 zontal weaving. The under portion of this double l)asket is covered 

 over with false embroidery designs. No. 1 is an evident departure 

 from ancient shapes, and the surface is covered with poor work in 

 embroidery. No. 3 is more worthy of scrutiny. On the outer bas- 

 ket, or cover, plain weaving and eml)roidery alternate in single lines 



