288 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



the mosaic elements in anj^ basket one must not fall into the error of 

 thinking that there is not the greatest variet}' of fundamental shapes 

 in the things to be monotonized. The}' vary in outline and relief in 

 position with reference to the horizon; that is^ the rim of the basket, 

 in relative proportion to the whole and its parts. 



In checkerwork the basketrj' tiles, one 

 might call them, keeping in mind the 

 use of the word mosaic, are squares or 

 rectangles in close or open work. The 

 mosaic of checkerwork pleases by its 

 uniformity, and 3'et many baskets made 

 l)y hand with tools not over refined have 

 in them enough of variety to relieve 

 them from the dull monotony in machine 

 products. Flexibility in materials, as 

 between hard-wood splints and those of 

 cedar bark and palm leaf, offers all the chance the weaver needs to 

 pla}' tricks in reliefs. The eye is never wearied in rambling up and 

 down among these crooked paths. There is possibility of variety even 

 in checkerwork, through changing the widtli of warp and weft ele- 

 ments. 01)long rectangles there mingle with tiny or larger squares in 

 tessellated surfaces. (See Plate 14 and figs. Itt; and i>7.) 



Fig. 92. 

 checker ornament in two colors. 



After W. H. Holmes. 





mm 



Fig. 93. 

 amazonian basket decorations in checker. 



After F. H. dishing. 



What is here said concerning the lesthetic effects produced in the 

 plainest kind of checkerwork l)y simple alternation of the colors is 

 illustrated bv fig. i^'2, after Holmes in the Sixth Annual Report of the 

 Bureau of Ethnology already quoted. 



Fig. 98 is a more interesting illustration from the Amazon region, 



