ABORIGINAL AMERICAN BASKETRY. 



43i 



the root. To propare the grass for rbyhiii- it i^ woven together 

 at the ends with tihcn-s of cedar ])ark. It is then spread upon the 

 ground or upon roofs in the sun. When to be used it is moistened 

 with water and split with two small knife blades, set in a stick in 

 such a manner as to make tiie strips of the same width, the smaller 

 l)ortion being thrown away. The grass is kept moist with water 

 while being made into l>askets. The colored grasses are prepared by 

 using aniline dyes. They were formerly colored by steeping the 

 roots of plants that yielded a yellow coloring. A red dyo was made 

 from the bark of alder, and a ])aint was made of blue clay. " 



Plate 16;^ shows a nund)er of Quinaielt baskets in twined and o\'er- 

 laid weave in the collection of Miss Anne M. Lang. 



Plate 1»)3, top figure, is a wallet made from grass stems by the 

 Quinaielt Indians. It is worthy of especial study, l)ecaus(' the warp 

 is horizontal and the weft vertical. 

 Openwork figures are produced on 

 the surface in a series of chevroned 

 patterns by an ingenious but very 

 simple process. At the point where 

 the open efiect is to be produced 

 the two strands constituting the 

 twine do not make a half turn, l>ut 

 pass above and below the warp, as 

 in ordinary plain weaving, across 

 one warp strand. In the next 

 round th(^ adjoining pair are simi- 

 larly treated, and thus tigures are 

 produced. At the upper and lower 

 margin two rows of horizontal 

 twined weaving fasten otf tho ends, 

 which are In-aided down. On the sides the warp strands are sewed 

 into and concealed in a coarse braid of rushes. Width, IS^ inches; 

 height. 14 inches. 



Catalogue No. 151452, in the U. 8. National Museum, was collected 

 in Washington by Dr. Franz Boas. 



Plate 163, bottom tigure, is a Thompson River basket in the collec- 

 tion of J. W. Benhani. It is introduced here for the purpose of show- 

 ing how the Indian woman's mind struggled with the problem of 

 starting the bottom of a rectangular coiled 1)asket. It has been said 

 that the Thompson Piver Indians do not understand this process, but 

 many old Thompsons have coiled bottoms and this technic is older 

 than the other. The work begins by wrapping a foundation of splints 

 with the split root of spruce or cedar for or more inches. This is 



« Smithsonian Report, 1886, Pt. 1, pp. 267-282. 



Fi«. 160. 



DETAIL OF Fir; 



