ABOEIGINAL AMEKICAN BASKETKY. 287 



her mouth for a vise and other i)urposes, with a Unit knife, and the 

 educated fingers, the patient and skillful artist formerly brought all 

 her filaments to uniform thickness. At present scissors, awls, knives, 

 and gauges (all of mejal) aid her immensely in her task. The eyes 

 and hands cooperating, in some instances through a hundred thousand 

 efforts, produce elements of astonishing uniformity. This unity is of 

 a ver>' high order; for in many examples, cou])led with a monoton}^ of 

 elements absolutely undei" control of the artist there is at the same 

 time a charming variation in width and length of parts in harmony 

 with, and made necessaiy l)V, the wideinng and narrowing of the 

 basket. This unity in a myriad of details is tiie more noteworthy in a 

 basket-maker's art, in conunon with that of all other textile workers, 

 because the individual elements are not lost or destroyed in the opera- 

 tion. The exceptions to this are rare, as in a few California speci- 

 mens, where the coiled sewing is entirely obscured ])y overlaying of 

 feathers. Usually the perfection of the stitch is the aim of the worker. 



Plate 4(i is a rare coiled ))asket made by a Washoe woman named- 

 Datsolalee. It is in the collection of A. Cohn, Carson City, Nevada. 

 The piece measures Si inches high, is 12 inches wide, and »i inches 

 wide at the opening. The stitches nuiulxn- over .'')(),< )()(), being thirty 

 to the inch. The body color is a rich light gold, and the figures are 

 in red and Idack. It weighs IG ounces, and is valued at many hun- 

 dreds of dollars. The figures on the basket represent ])irds migrating 

 or flying away, the motto l)eing, "When the birds leave their nests 

 and fly awa}', we shall move." The shape of this i)iece and the (juality 

 of the sentiment in the markings are excelled only b}^ the inimitable 

 quality of the work on the surface. It is difficult to conceive of a 

 more perfectly uniform piece of handiwork than this. 



In pottery all vestiges of coiling and molds are commonly ol)liter- 

 ated. In a very few examples of ancient ware there seems to have 

 ))een an aim to perfect the coiling and render its detail monotonous 

 and artistic, ))ut in the many thousands of other examples the potter 

 has erased the marks of the fingers, the paddle, and the mold. On 

 the other hand, the whole development of the art of l)asketrv has been 

 an effort to perfect the individual stitch, or mesh, or check, if neces- 

 sary to make any nund)er of thousands of them exactly alike over the 

 entire surface of a large recei)tacle, or to study the greatest possible 

 number of variations that may be given in form to these primary ele- 

 ments consistent with the unity of the whole efiect. The Eskimo near 

 the mouth of the Yukon must have only lately acquired the art of 

 basket making. With coarse hay for the foundation and sinew for 

 thread they produce the clumsiest excuses for basketry, ugly in form, 

 slovenly in stitching, and utterly devoid of designs on the surface, 

 while the Aleuts, close hj, have unique elementary forms and work 

 W'ith surprising uniformity. With the monotony or uniformity of 



