378 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



to give a compressed shape. This interesting- specimen has been many 

 years in the National Musemii and is credited to Capt. C. F. Hall, the 

 Arctic explorer. It ma}- be compared with others of the same type 

 from the southern Canadian border. Catalogue No. 10203; height, If 

 inches. A much later specimen also from the Eskimo is shown in the 

 next plate. 



Plate 126 is openwork coiled basketry of the Eskimo of Davis Inlet, 

 eastern Canada. The foundation is of straw and the sewing is done 

 in the same material, the stitches merely interlocking. The noteworthy 

 characteristic of the basket is the slight amount of sewing in certain 

 portions. The bottom is not unlike the work of the western Eskimo, 

 and, indeed, is a typical illustration. There is a little splitting of 

 stitches. })ut probably not designed. On the sides the openwork is 



produced by wrapping the foundation with 

 the straw for one-half an inch and then 

 sewing, as in ordinary coiled work, the 

 angles to the coil ])elow. This may be 

 compared in the wrapping with the open- 

 work coiled basketry of the Kern County 

 Indians in California. (See tig. 19C>.) 

 Sewing of exactly the same style is to 

 be found in northern Europe, and the 

 suggestion is made that this particular 

 method among the eastern Eskimo is an 

 acculturation. To come nearer home, 

 coiled l)asketi'v in ratia tiiat is taught in 

 tlie schools is largely in this wrapped and 

 sewed method. The Eskimo of this area 

 were for centuries in contact with Norse 

 settlers. This specimen is 8i inches 

 in length, and was collected by L. M. 

 Turner. 



Plate 127 gives the profile and inside view of a shallow coiled basket 

 tray of the Comanche Indians, living on the plains east of the Rock}' 

 Mountains, used principally in gambling. The foundation is of rods 

 and splints, the sewing with leaf of yucca ( Yuera <irl-(()isana). Especial 

 attention is invited to the furcate stitches, designedh' and symmetric- 

 ally split. This technic relegates the basket to the Ute or Shoshonean 

 area, west of the Rockies. The Comtuiches belong to the Shoshonean 

 family. Its diameter is 1> inches. 



In the National Museum are four small, dish-shaped, coiled gambling 

 baskets, Catalogue Nos. 63-1:2, 8127, and 153932, gathered from the Rees 

 or Caddoan Indians, the other one from the Mandans, Avho are Siouan. 

 These baskets are made from willow, on a two-rod foundation, but 

 roughly assembled and sewed with sj)lints of the same material. The 



Fig. 114. 

 finished wicker basket. 



