356 BEPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



modern forms of apparatus in textile material. This telescope ))asket 

 was used b}^ the owner for holding caps, l)ullets, or other delicate objects 

 for huntincr. It also shows that the acculturation of form did not begin 

 recently, but took place as soon as the Indian woman's eye rested 

 upon some novel and attractive form. This specimen is Catalogue No. 

 1156 in the U. S. National Museum and was collected by James G. 

 Swan. 



Plate 109 represents a woman\s workbasket of the Tlinkit Indians, 

 of southeastern Indians, in twined weaving, ornamented in false 

 embroidery. Doubtless the form is derived from Russian motives, 

 but it is extremely common among the Indians in this locality and is 

 useful in a thousand ways for holding material. This specimen was 

 collected in Sitka, Alaska, b}^ J, J. McLean. 



The Fraser River tribes in British Columbia illustrate also what is 

 said a])out the power of suggestion in modifying form, and even 

 structure, in an art. The bulk of their stalwart baskets are made for 

 cooking and harvesting apparatus. But where the Hudson Bay 

 Conipany's and Malayo-Pacihc packages came into view, another class 

 of baskets appeared, fashioned in their shapes and ornamented over 

 their entire surfaces. (See Plates 43 and 1:4.) 



IN RELIGION 



The one who carried the sacred basket in the Greek religious pro- 

 cessions was called the Kanephoros, and it will be remembered that in 

 the consecration of Aaron and his family to the priesthood, among the 

 multitude of paraphernalia was the basket of shew bread." 



In one tribe, at least, of American aborigines — the Hopi of north- 

 eastern Arizona — bread consecrated to the service of religion is set 

 before the altar in l)eautiful plaques of coiled and wicker l)asketry, on 

 which the emblems of religion are wrought in coloj's. 



By religion is meant beliefs about a spirit world, with all its inhab- 

 itants and their relations with mankind; this is creed, and (udt, or 

 worship. " The best for the gods " is the talisman in the rudest faiths 

 as in the highest. So it will be found that basketr}^ devoted to religion 

 is worthy of its object. 



In the autumn, during the months of September and October, the 

 Hopi Indians of northeastern Arizona celebrate their basket dances. 

 They have been studied by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes and J. G. Owen. 

 The basket dance is a public exhibition, closing a series of secret rites, 

 the whole festival being called LaJahmtl. It is rather a posturing of 

 the body in rhythm, together with songs, during which baskets are 

 carried by women or thrown as gifts among the assembled spectators. 



Those taking part in these dances are in two groups — the basket 



« Leviticus, viii, 2. 



