ABOEIGINAL AMERICAN BASKETRT 



397 



effect may be varied by mixing- two strands of different color in the 

 twine. The fastening off' at the top is done by working the warp 

 strands into a three-strand braid, turning down on the inside of the 

 vessel, and cutting off' an end whenever a new warp thread is taken up 

 by the l)raid. Frequently the last three or four warp straws are not 

 cut off', but ])raided out to their extremities in order to form a handle 

 for the basket. 



In order to show how the warp and weft are administered in this 

 far north region, a square inch of a wallet is represented much 

 enlarged, ffg. 13?>. The openwork producing parallel ffgures is 

 effected by leaving spaces between the different lines of twining. 

 The four rows at the top of the drawing are plain, solid, twined weav- 

 ing; the fifth row from the top is twined in an opposite direction, giv- 

 ing the effect of a three-strand braid between the two rows; the third 

 row from the top represents imper- 

 fectly the effect produced by the 

 three-strand work. It is interesting 

 to find this method of basket weav- 

 ing so far north. 



The student will notice farther on 

 that very much of the elegant use 

 of the warp in ornamentation, so 

 common with the Aleuts, who 

 speak a kindred language and live 

 near b}^, is lost. It will be seen, 

 however, that with their rude ma- 

 terials and tools the Eskimo have 

 still acquired the art of making a 

 great variety of basketry, showing 

 that they have had a multitude of 

 teachers. This specimen, Catalogue No. 38ST2 in the IT. S. National 

 Museum, was collected, with many others, at Norton Sound, l)y E. W. 

 Nelson. 



To furnish a means of comparison ))etween the two sides of Bering 

 Sea, Plate 138 is a twined Avallet of the Chukchi people of Kamchatka. 

 The foundation is of straw laid parallel, and the weft is of plain twined 

 weaving, the rows one-half an inch apart. The l)order is finished off' 

 by gathering the ends of the warp into a braid. The decoration on 

 this l)asket is effected first by coloring warp strands black and group- 

 ing them systematically, and also l)y three narrow l)ands of black 

 twined weaving near the top. Its height is 12 inches. This specimen, 

 now in the American Museum of Natural History, New York, was col- 

 lected by the flessup Expedition. 



To pursue the comparison farther into Asiatic territory, Plate 131) 

 is a wallet in twined weaving from Kamchatka, introduced here for 



Fig. 133. 



detail of eskimo twined wallet. 



Collei'ted by E. W. Nelson. 



