ABORIGINAL AMERICAN BASKETRV 



399 



ov(^r the. ])uiich and under a few stems in the coil just beneath, the 

 stitch looping under a stitch of the h)Win' coil. When this kind of 

 work is careful!}" done, as amonu- tlu^ Indians of New Mexico, Arizona, 

 and (^difornia, and in some ex([uisite examples in bamboo from Siam 

 and in palm leaf from Nubia, beautiful results are reached; but the 

 Eskimo basket maker does not prepare her foundations evenly, sews 

 carelessly, passing the thread sometimes through the stitches just 

 below and sometimes l)etween them, and does not work her stitches 

 home (tig. 51). It can not be said that she has no skill with the 

 needle, for her embroideries in fur, intestines, and ({uill are excellent. 



^^% 

 ^^%^». 



%^/' 





Fig. 135. 

 bottom op fig. 134. 



Most of the baskets in the Eskimo collection in the National Museum 

 were gathered by E. W. Nelson and have a round bit of leather in the 

 bottom to start upon (tig. 1:^5). The shape is either that of the 

 uncovered bandbox or of the ginger jar.'' Especial attention should 

 be paid to this form of stitching, as it occurs again in widely distant 

 regions in a great variety of material and with moditications produc- 

 ing striking etfects. (See tigs. 18-1, 135.) 



The Eskimo women employ in basket making a needle made of a 

 bird bone ground to a point on a stone (tig. 4<»). Fine tufts of rein- 



' Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1900, pi. 74. 



