ABOKIGINAL AMERICAN BASKETRY. 403 



this technical method l)y the Mi.ssion Indians in California. This speci- 

 men represents the ver}^ best coiled work that tiie Eskimo can make. 



ALEUTIAN BASKETRY 



In 1ST4. William H. Dall contributed to the LI. S. National Museum 

 a num])er of specimens of twined Ijasketry, from Attn and other 

 islands far out in the Aleutian chain. (Catalogue Nos. 10-tT«)-l'.>4:S()). 

 There for the first time this ext{uisite weaving' was .brougiit to light. 

 Warp and weft are straws of l)each grass" and the workmanship will 

 compare favorably with that of any other l)asket makers in the world. 

 In the conical wallets, which resemble in outline those of the Eskimo 

 and southeastern Alaskan tribes, the warp straws radiate from the 

 center of the bottoiu. On the body the twined weft, always the same 

 plain two-strand work, is applied to the warp so as to give rise to sev- 

 eral technical varieties, which may be classified as follows: 



1. Plain twined weaving, the weft driven home (Plate 14::^). 



2. Open twined work, there l)eing open spaces ])etween the rows 

 of weaving, but the warp strands ai'e parallel. 



3. Crossed warp, in which there are two sets of warp elements, one 

 half inclining to the right, the other half toward the left. The twined 

 wea\"ing binds the decussations, making hexagonal meshes. This tv'pe 

 has an interesting distril)ution on lx)th sides of the Pacific. 



•I. Divided warp. A pretty efJ'ect is produced l)y these Aleut Ijasket 

 makers, who split the warp, or divide it, if it consists of straws in pairs, 

 and twining the weft straws around two halves of the same straw and 

 next around two half straws not of the same ])ut of adjoining stalks. 

 If the warp be of straws })v twos, the left side member of one pair is 

 entwined with the right-hand member of the adjoining pair. On the 

 next round there is an alternation, the stra^\s that belong together 

 being entwined. The residt of this is a series of lozenge-shaped open- 

 ings or meshes (figs. 16, 17). The gentu-al appearance of the surface 

 resembles a form of needlework called hemstitching. The Aleuts in 

 dou!)ling the warp do not place one element behind another as do the 

 Tlinkits, but alongsid(\ This enables the weaver to convert her tech- 

 nic into some other type in the successive rounds. She may have plain 

 twining, crossed warp, zigzag warp, or hemstitch at any moment. 



5. Diverted warp. By this is meant a form of weaving in which 

 certain warp straws are deflected from the perpendicular for a few 

 courses and then brought back or changed to the upright position 

 again. The result of this is a most pleasing efi'ect (Plate 113) and of 

 the greatest variety on the surface. Attention has been previously 



(I Ehjmus mollis, Sitka, Norton Sound, Kotzebue Sound; Elipivix an'narius, Norton 

 Sound to Point Barrow; Ebjmus sihlrlcus, Sitka. Rothrock, Smithsonian Report, 1867. 

 For a description of the Eskimo and Aleuts, see W. H. Dall, in the Contributions to 

 North American Ethnology, I, 1877, pp. 7-106. 



