304 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



the two strands of the weft may ditier in color, so that the result will 

 be the mottled line. If the warp stems be odd in number, then on the 

 next round the colors on vertical lines will not match. With these 

 simple resources the basket-maker may play an unlimited number of 

 melodies. An excellent example of lines in simple and two-color 

 effects from southeastern Alaska is shown in colored plate 67. 



But the aml)itious artist is not satisfied with flecked lines and mottled 

 surfaces, and broad ])ands in one color. Her bands are divided into 

 rectangles, trianoles, and rhomboidal elements. The zones of element 

 are widened and the geometric patterns composing them are multi- 

 plied and variegated. Those who have large collections may have 

 noticed how the several styles of technic behave in this ri^gard. 

 Checkerwork is little restrained, so also are wicker and twilled orna- 

 mentation; but in twined and coiled ware the case is entirely differ- 

 ent. Plain twine and the Poino tee work venture little beyond the 

 banded ornament. The same is true of most coil types; but the 

 twilled or diagonal-twined work and the three-rod coil leap over the 

 parallels and spread themselves out in ])ewildei'ing cycloids of colored 

 patterns, or, keeping to the angular elements, the weaver covers a large 

 surface with fretwork in endless variet3^ All of this is wrought into 

 the structure of the ])asket in the substantial everyday material, which 

 possess tenacity and color as well. Quite a number of tribes in the 

 southwestern United States use no superadded material or d^^es what- 

 ever, and yet the tribes of the Piman family excel all others in the 

 endless variety of fretwork on their basketry produced with splints in 

 wood color and the undyed splints from the pod of the cat's claw, or 

 Maiiynla louisiana. (See Plate 63.) 



(J) By dyeing. — The colors of natural textile materials were still 

 further diversified with d3"es and paints, the latter either stamped, 

 stenciled, or applied freehand. At the present time the cheap and 

 obtrusive d3'es and paints of the trades supplant the aboriginal and 

 more attractive substances. The latter have also l)ecome more diffi- 

 cult to procure as civilization has preempted the ground. 



The artificial coloration of basketr}^ material was known to the 

 American savages in pre-Columbian times. For mineral dyes they 

 use earth colors, burjnng the splints in different soils, where they 

 acquired permanent shades. Vegetable d^^es were known from Alaska 

 southward everywhere. The substances used were such as have the 

 power of directly fixing themselves within the texture of the basket 

 material. It is true and also interesting to note that certain of the 

 processes of the Indians in dyeing their basketry materials were, all 

 unconsciously to them, foreshadowings of the later and more compli- 

 cated processes in which a mordant is employed to fix the dyestuff in 

 the materials. The Indian had no knowledge of the effects produced. 

 They discovered the fact, but their theories would lead into dreamy 



