ABORIGINAL AMEEICAN BASKETRY. 335 



VI. USES OF BASKETRY 



Bk'ssfd shall bo thy basket and thy sti.ro.— DkitkhoNhmy. XXVIII: 5. 



Nature bus provided nienibors ot" the uiiinial kiniidom with recepta- 

 (des which are a part of their anatomy. The eaiiiel has its water 

 sack, the ruminant animals have their extra stomach for the storao-e 

 of grasses, the squirrel carries nuts in the })ouch in the side of his 

 cheek, and cerhiin insects are provided with various means of trans- 

 portino- food to a distance. It remained for the human race to invent 

 appliances to accomplish simihir results, and basketry forms one of 

 tiie principal means adapted to such needs. There is practicalh' no 

 limit to the uses to wdiich ])asket-work weaving has 1)een put. The 

 enumeration of these uses in detail will sliow wiiat a })i-omiiient place 

 the receptacle has had for holding water, food, and other precious 

 objects, for gatiiering the materials connected with industry and for 

 transporting them. Basketry also enters into the house, the furniture, 

 the clothing, the armor, the domestic economy, the family life, and 

 religion of the American tribes. 



There are a multitude of secondary uses of baskets which will be 

 mentioned in the proper place. Certainly they have done as much as 

 any other industry to develop the intellectual life of savage women, 

 both a knowledge of the resources of nature and a taste for aesthetic 

 products. It will also ])e found that there is no gulf l)etween ])asketry, 

 beadwork, lacework. and loom work. There are times when the basket 

 weaver suspends her work and, with the use of her lingers alone, 

 imitates the products of most complicated weaving fi'ames. The 

 highest steps in basket making will ])e the first steps in the great 

 mechanical art which now costs so many millions of dollars and 

 employs so many human beings. 



Before the coming of the European, basketry supplied nearly ever}' 

 domestic necessity of the Indians, from an infant's cradle to the richly- 

 decorated funerary jars burned with the dead. The wealth of a family 

 was counted in the num])er and ]:)eauty of its baskets and the highest 

 virtue of woman was her ability to produce them. Some domestic 

 vessels were named for the particular service they performed; as 

 bi-ti-bo-um' (dishes), or Ka-dem (water giver) among the Pomos; but 

 the majority were known by their weave or shape. Vessels of the 

 Tee weave, says Hudson, bore the l)runt of culinary usage, as pots, 

 pails, roasters, etc. There were two varieties of sifters; the coarse 

 pshu-kau separating the cruml^s for nut cake, etc., and the ma-a-po-i, 

 or finer sifter (a conoid utensil), which, slightly tilted and struck 

 sharply within by the linger tips, spills the chatf over the outer 

 margin. 



