ABOEIGINAL AMERICAN BASKETRY. 303 



It is said that the Japanese in sawing up logs will keep the planks 

 bound tog-ether until the workman is ready to use them, and when the 

 carpenter places them in a ceiling or a piece of furniture he is careful 

 to have the ends al)ut on each other as they were together in nature. 

 The grain, in sucli case, fits and produces odd but pleasing forms. In 

 the same way the l)asket maker, by showing discretion and taste with 

 roots or stems of ditl'erent shades, succeeds in producing cloud effects 

 upon the basket or mat. So nature comes in to the assistance of the 

 Indian woman in her elementary steps. She does not start out with 

 tlie design in her mind which she will produce in color, but by using 

 the colored elements she is able to get her effect with less forethought. 

 Indeed, it can be seen that in such a way the earliest thoughts of l)eauty 

 might have been awakened. 



Plate 62 shows two coiled Mission baskets in the collection of G. 

 Wharton James; the upper one is 10 inches and the lower one llf 

 inches in diameter. They are made of rush, but the, interesting fea- 

 ture for which they are introduced here is the design — the upper 

 figure might be called the keystonii pattern, the ))ody of the bowl 

 having two zones of patterns in brown and black material, each one 

 made up of wedge-shaped figures, narrow on the inside and widening 

 outward. These ijatterns are in four parts, each one surmounted by 

 a middle piece extending two rows ])eyond the next pair and each pair 

 of the series ending two rows nearer to the center. They are of ec^ual 

 width. A narrow wedge separates the four groups. Between the 

 zones is a band of white preserving the outline of the border. The 

 lower figure is a five-pointed star, the border of the segments being- 

 curved as in the orange-peel pattern. The central figure might be 

 called a sun design, which, though it be modern, shows the adaptabil- 

 ity of the Indian mind to invasion by suggestion. 



A second step in color resources, without going away from the 

 natural and necessary structural elements, is in the use of different 

 materials. Very few areas in the Western Hemisphere are so poor 

 in resources as to have only one good basketry plant. On the Great 

 Lakes ash, hemp, and sweet grass are white, brown, and green; in 

 the Southwest rhus is white and martj^nia is black; in California willow 

 is woody white; cercis is red outside and snow-white inside, and at 

 least one sedge has black root, and the j^ucca a red one. Most dainty 

 effects are secured in coiled basketry by sewing with strips from quills 

 of flickers and other highly colored birds. Not to pursue the state- 

 ment too far, it is only in Alaska and the Straits of Magellan that the 

 body of our textile does not contain varied material. 



The moment a savage woman has in hand these variegated substances 

 her fancy is emancipated. Warp may be of one plant and weft of 

 another, either in plain checker or in twilled weaving. Wickerwork 

 is not entirely irresponsive to the opportunity. In twined weaving 



