294 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



have at their command four colors, that of the root or wood with which 

 the body of the basket is sewed; black filaments taken from the root 

 of a peculiar sedge; where the redbud or cercis is available, the outer 

 bark is a rich brown and the inner side quite white; in addition there 

 is a bright reddish root, J^iwca arhorescens. 



The stitches are, of course, hexagonal in form, but the pressing of 

 the wood together gives them quite an oval outline, and they naturally, 

 in the course of sewing, incline toward the right. With these colors 

 and oval elements to which the artist is bound to restrict herself, the 

 attempt is here made to produce a step-formed cycloid. In the spaces 



between each two designs is 

 the figure of a man. It is 

 interesting to note how, un- 

 der such narrow restrictions, 

 so good effects can be pro- 

 duced. 



In southern California 

 among the Tulare and other 

 neighboring tribes, as well 

 as among the Apache and 

 Navaho, most pretentious fig- 

 ures are attempted in coiled 

 elements. Fig. 99, after 

 Holmes, in the Sixth Annual 

 Report of the Bureau of Eth- 

 nology (fig. 339) furnishes a 

 good example of what is here 

 mentioned, but the farthest 

 departure from old-fashioned 

 types is exhibited in the work 

 of the Apaches, who attempt 

 all sorts of animal forms in 

 coiled work, and the Pima 

 tribes, who lose themselves 

 in labyrinths and frets. 

 The basket from which this 

 elementary rectangle is taken will be found illustrated on Plate 30, in 

 Report of the U. S. National Museum for 1884. « 



Plate 49 shows two covered jars in exquisite coiled work, brought 

 from Santa Barbara, California, b}^ William Alden Gale, of Boston, 

 between 1810 and 1835, and owned by the Misses Eaton. The upper 

 basket is 11 inches high and 5 inches wide; the lower 15i inches wide 

 and 10 inches high. The}' are introduced here for the purpose of 

 calling attention to their combination of iesthetic qualities. One does 



Fig. 100. 

 pima caeryin(i framj5. 

 Southern Arizona. 

 Cat. No. 7603:i, U.S.N.M. Collected hy Kilward Palmer. 



« Seealfio Stephen Powers in Contributions to North American Ethnology, 1877, p. 256. 



