296 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902 



46) SO, in a hig^her sense, the orderly recurring of the same geometric 

 shape over and over in an intricate design adds to the enjoyment of 

 the whole. These elements are not exact, however, being hand-made 

 and bounded by lines produced by the curved forms in most basketry. 

 The artistic effect is thus heightened. 



(a) Lines hi ornament. — It may not have occurred to the reader to 

 observe how scrupulous almost every Indian basket maker is to relieve 

 the monotony of her work by a simple line of some other kind of 

 weaving. It would be safe to say that no basket is without them. In 

 the entire Hudson collection in the National Museum there is not a 

 twined basket whose texture is not improved in more than one place 

 by a line in a different style of technic. These lines may run in almost 

 any direction, and, as in the Haida hat, be worked into geometric 

 figures. 



Plate 50 is a collection of Pima basket bowls from southern Arizona 

 belonging to F. M. Covert, of New York city. It shows how many 

 different effects are produced in the same tribe by the mere adminis- 

 tration of lines wandering about. In some of the figures shown it 

 will be seen how easy it is for a row of stitches to become double and 

 then to add or to make additional rows at the ends or on the sides, to 

 separate lines or to give to a line any sort of curved effect. This is 

 especially noticeable in fig. 3. The line may pass by further additions 

 into rectangles, triangles, or geometric figures. The Indians of the 

 southwestern portion of the United States have exhausted the situation 

 in this matter of meandering lines. 



{h) Squares or rectangles. — The next simplest form upon which the 

 basket artist may venture is the square or rectangle, which may be a 

 l)and of two or more rows interrupted by vertical spaces, perhaps in 

 another color. It is a matter of counting the same number over and 

 over as the work progresses, and is one of the first steps in arithmetic. 

 In a Porno gift basket the square patterns on the bottom are the mats 

 on the ffoor, and so the simplest of weaving motives lends itself to 

 symbolism. In the plainest forms of work the checkers or squares 

 are oriented at right angles to the horizon or border of the specimen. 

 Variety is effected by the position of the squares and their relation 

 one to another and to other decorative elements. A delightful effect 

 is produced on matting especially where the squares or checkers are 

 oblique to the borders. Such work is to be seen in America, but was 

 much more common in the islands of the Pacific. 



The rectangle gives a wider scope still to variety in artistic effects. 

 Bands of rectangles are to be seen around basketry, and more compli- 

 cated forms are made up of them or have them in their composition. 

 A departure from the rectangle, but in the same line of workmanship, 

 is the parallelogram. Such work is easily produced in the diagonal or 

 twilled weaving, ^n excellent example of an intricate design made up 



