312 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



Covillea tridentata — Creosote bush, 

 Deljpliin ium scaposum — Larkspur. 

 Dondia suffrutescens — Sea blite.. 

 Evernia vid2nna — Wolf moss. 

 Selianth'us j^etioJaris — Sunflower. 

 Parosela emoryl — Paiosela. 

 Quercus lohata — California white oak. 

 Rhus dlversiloba — Poison oak. 

 Samhucus mexicana — Elder. 

 Thelesperma gracile — Thelesperiiia. 

 Yacciniuni meiidyrmubceum — Blueberry. 



V. SYMBOLISM 



All the high and low 

 Of my wild life in these wild stems I snare; 

 The jagged lightning and the star I show; 

 The spider and the trailing snake are there. 



— Anna Bali,. 



All industry leads to fine art and all savage arts begin at the foot of 

 the ladder and end "'beyond the bourne of sunset.-' In this apotheosis, 

 basketiy is the rival of stone working, wood carving, skin dressing, 

 and pottery. The merely useful basket has some beauty, but the 

 exalted specimen of handiwork is the acme of intelligent discrimina- 

 tion in the materials as well as of hand skill and taste, and leads up to 

 the choicest textile productions. Its maker must be botanist, colorist, 

 weaver, designer, and poet, all in one. But could the windows of her 

 mind be thrown open wide there would be seen, in addition to all these, 

 the mystic love of her tribe alive and active. In the old days of 

 unsophisticated savagery, no doubt, there was everywhere in America 

 the overseeing and guiding presence of the mythic in the practical. 

 Its relics are still to be found on fragments of pottery especially, and 

 there is no reason to douV)t that it reigned in other departments of 

 activity. The old-time basket makers were under its spell every- 

 wdiere. It would be an interesting study, but it can not be pursued 

 here, to And out how far the various peoples of Europe in settling 

 down upon the lands of the savages had by their ethnic traits and 

 l)eliefs gradually eliminated or modified those of the aborigines in the 

 matter of symbolism. 



Besides the umnodified artistic motives in the designs on basketry, 

 there still survives in the Pacific coast area a symbolism more or less 

 connected with Indian cosmogony. The maker is a sorcerer. In 

 such tribes as the Hopi this idealism in design is still alive and activ^e. 

 Among the Algonkin Indians of the Atlantic States the thought seems 

 to have escaped entirely from the design, and the Indian woman mak- 

 ing her baskets at the seaside resort, at the springs, or at Niagara 



