342 REPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



The Massawomekes, on the Chesapeake Ba}', had similar basket 

 shields or armor. Smith" speaks of them as made of little small 

 sticks woven ""betwixt strings of thin hempe and silke grass," ])ut so 

 hrmly that no arrow could possibly pierce them. Comparing this 

 description with the figure above leaves no doul)t of the similarity of 

 the defense on both sides of the continent. 



IX DRESS AND ADORNMENT 



Basketry, laying aside its chief function of holding something, is 

 even now used extensively among many tribes in dress and adornment 

 of the person. It was mentioned in the section on carrying that the 

 exigencies of going about stimulated the inventive faculty not onl}- in 

 the basket industry but in other crafts accessory to travel. The fore- 

 most of these companion arts is that of sandal or shoe maker. It is 

 true that boots of hide and moccasins of tawed skin are the commonest 

 suppl}' of this want, but there is a vast portion of America where the 

 sandal holds sway. They are made of tough fiber and woven in wicker, 

 checker, twill, twined in a number of fashions. Some of the clifi'- 

 dwellers' sandals are studies in weaving thi'ee and even four pl3\ 

 Many of them are figured in a paper on Primitive Travel and Trans- 

 portation.'^ (See Plate 87.) 



But, far more than the feet, the head claims the ])asket weaver's ar-t 

 the world over. In America the basket hat clings to the Pacific slope. 

 As soon as the Indian area is reached in southeastern Alaska the hat 

 bursts into bloom. It is made not only for comfort, to save the eyes 

 of the hunter from the glare, and to act as an umbrella, but the handy 

 weaver, having first scoured the earth for the most delicate spruce 

 root, exhausts her artistic skill in its composition. The Tlinkit 

 woman and the Haida woman solve the problem difi'erentl}'. Given 

 the task to make the most elegant hat that can be done in spruce root, 

 the Haida artist relies upon her delicate fingers to get the result. 

 Twined weaving is her technic, but plain and twill and three-ply are 

 so happily blended that she discards color. The Tlinket, just a whit 

 less refined in touch, or majbe not having such perfect material, 

 resorts to color. The designs are not always wrought, but are fre- 

 quently painted, while beard of seal, abalone shell, and beads exhaust 

 the possil)ilities of decoration. These hats are made for men as well 

 as women. Indeed, the finest are doubtless made for men to wear on 

 the chase, with the conviction that a hunter must not only do his best 

 but wear his best. 



The use of the basket in clothing reaches its climax in the California 

 hats. In a description of the costume worn b}' Hupa Indians in 



«.Tohn Smith, History of V^irginia, Richmond, 1819, p. 185. 



6 Otis T. Mason, Primitive Travel and Transportation, Report of the U. S. 

 National Musenm, 1894, pp. 237-593. 



