336 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



The great value of her work reflected upon the make'" herself. It 

 was the most expert woman in basketr3% says Miss Jennie C. Carr, 

 who brought the highest price, nameh", two strings of shell mone3^ 



Of old basketry some examples are clean while others are soiled and 

 dilapidated. The former had the good fortune to fall into careful 

 hands half a century ago, when they were new, and have with the years 

 merely faded down to their indescribable shades. The other precious 

 old pieces have been 



Dipped in baths of hissing tears 

 And battered by the shocks of doom. 



The study of structure in basketry, as in other activities, leads to 

 investigations concerning functions and use. Among the least favored 

 tribes in this regard there is a similarity to the lower forms of animal 

 life where the same structure performs a number of processes. It is 

 also common to see among plain sort of people and the uneducated 

 one utensil used for many purposes. So with the little advanced 

 tribes of Indians there will be one technical process in basket making 

 and very small variety of forms for many uses, but whiMi the more 

 advanced and skillful tribes are reached there is a differentiation of 

 function and along with it corresponding differences in stiaicture and 

 technical processes even in the same piece. 



In the study of function there are two inquiries of ociual value, 

 namely, (1) the geographic distribution of functions together with 

 the particular types of basketr}^ that are used to perform these offices 

 from place to place, and (2) tribal origins and purposes in order to 

 connect function with ethnological and geographical studies. In each 

 one of the six areas into which the Western Hemisphere has been 

 divided the uses to which baskets are put will be decided by the ani- 

 mals, plants, and minerals that are indispensable to the happiness of 

 the people, and the forms and characteristics of the baskets will 

 depend upon the plants that are to l»e had for making them. On the 

 seashore there must be clam baskets and tish baskets. In the interior 

 there will be l^erry baskets; and in tliose regions where no pottery is 

 to be found cooking Imskets, in which food is boiled b}^ means of hot 

 stones, are among the commonest objects in sight. From the other 

 point of view a more subtle question arises, wdiether ethnology has 

 anj'thing to do with basket materials or things to be carried in them. 

 In tracing the historj^ of invention during its primitive stages it will 

 at once be recognized that the art of basket making was greatly stim- 

 ulated by the multiplication of ends to be served; that the inventive 

 faculty having such a versatile and accommodating material found 

 scope for its own enlargement and improvement. In the end it be- 

 comes apparent that the art and the artist have set themselves one to 

 the other "like perfect music unto perfect words." The basket 



