ABORIGINAL AMERICAN BASKETRY, 451 



now more careful, and the last piece is sometimes started with a 

 sharp rock or knife, but usually with the teeth. One end of the splint 

 is caught in the rio^ht hand, the other being kept between the teeth. 

 The thumb and foretinger of the left hand are clinched tightly on the 

 stick below the mouth. The head and right hand are now pulled 

 slowly from each other. As the operation proceeds the linger and 

 thumb of the left hand are slowly slipped down in front of the split 

 part. Thus this last piece is divided accurately in the middle. The 

 splints are not used at once, but are tied up in large circular coils and 

 allowed to season, which, however, does not take long, as they are 

 thin and the heating process aids in seasoning them very quickly. 

 Being now prepared to make a basket, the woman uncoils the splints 

 and throws them into a pan or basket of water, which renders them 

 pliable and easy to be worked. The ribs of the basket are willow 

 switches with the bark scra])ed off. In beginning the basket two of 

 tho splints are taken from the water and attached to one of the rit)s 

 with a kind of wrapped knot, so fastened as to allow one splint to 

 stand toward the weaver and one directly from her. Another rib is 

 now set close to the rirst one, and the splints are reversed; that is, the 

 outside is pulled toward the weaver and the inside one is put from 

 her; this forms a half turn around each side of a rib, the splints 

 crossing or twining between the ribs. The same weave is used in the 

 construction of the whole basket. Around the extreme top of this 

 basket is a half-inch stick usually wrapped or stitched on with small 

 vines split in the center. The dark red material used occasionally in 

 this l)asket {Cercls occidental Is) is found in the mountains and is an 

 undergrowth never attaining a size larger than one's ankle. The 

 Indians call it "mo-lay.'' It bears a red lilossom and small slender 

 switches grow up at the bottom of the larger bush which are of a 

 dark red color. These are split open in the middle in the same way 

 as the tir root, save that they are not heated. The stitches represent 

 half the size of the stick, as it is split only once. The wood with 

 bark otf is snow white. 



Mr. Purcell, in describing a pretty little l)asketof grass root covered 

 with red feathers, made l)y the Little Lake Indians, sa3^s every mother 

 in this tribe presents one of these baskets to her child when it is about 

 7 years of age with the admonition to take care of the gift. They 

 have a superstition that if the basket is lost some evil will befall the 

 child. It is impossible to obtain one of these from the Little Lakes, 

 the specimen described having been secured in the Concow tribe. 



Under the name of Pomo are included a great num))er of tribes or 

 little l)ands, thirty, according to Hudson, Purdy, and Wilcomb — 

 sometimes one in a valley, sometimes more — clustered in the region 

 where the headwaters of the Eel and Russian rivers interlace, along 

 the latter and around the estuaries of the coast. In disposition the 



