470 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



The separate designs are, after all, subservient to the others. Very 

 little of this ware shows entirely free and scattered patterns. The 

 plume or L-shaped, the white and colored rectangles associated, the 

 groups of marks on the border, and chiefly the rectangles in two colors 

 with hourglass middle arc most common. 



Concentric designs are narrow or wide bands, whose middle portion 

 is decorated with crooked lines and geometric figures in endless variety 

 of combinations. Most of the ])ands have entire margins, Imt project- 

 ing margins are not unknown. The most noteworthy is Merriam's 

 "Initterfly flight design.'' (See Plate 194.) 



The radial designs are straight or spiral. The composition of each 

 ray is a study in itself. But a glance at a large numlnu- of baskets 

 from this central region shows the predominance of the cuneate 

 motive. These truncated wedges spring out of a central, circular 

 pattern and widen toward the margin. Their surfaces and their mar- 

 gins are seldom entire. The spiral designs are also frequently wedge- 

 shaped, but the manner of their composition is of the greatest interest. 

 Lurking in them all is the stepped motive in which herringbone or 

 jagged lines and simple geometric figures follow one another by echelon. 

 This on a roundish surface gives spirals of any amount of curvature. 

 By widening and lengthening the rectangular elements the wedge- 

 shaped interspaces are filled with the spiral pattern and the whole 

 surface is covered with a single design. This charming decoration 

 is peculiar to the Santa Barbara baskets. (See Plate 49.) In outward 

 form the baskets of the area here considered vary from round, flat 

 gambling mats, through trays and bowls of various depths, and hats 

 of conical shape, to narrow-mouthed vases, or '"bottle-necks" as they 

 are called. Some of these are low and broad and closely resemble 

 the best of ancient Arizona pottery. 



The basketry of the Panamint Indians (Shoshonean) living in Death 

 Valley, Inyo County, says Coville, is made ])y the squaws at the cost 

 of a great deal of time, care, and skill. The materials are very simple. 

 They consist of the year-old shoots of some species of tough willow, 

 splints from Salix las/andra^ the year-old shoots of the aromatic 

 sumac, Hhifs trilohata^ the long, black, slender, flexible horns on the 

 mature pods of the unicorn plant, Marty nia Jouisiuna, locally known as 

 devil horns, and the long, red roots of the tree yucca, Yucca arhorescois. 

 These materials gi^e three types of color — that of the willow and the 

 sumac, the black of the devil horns, and the red of the yucca roots. 

 This last material, although it has a .strong fiber and a prettv red color, 

 is rarely used, for it is too thick to pack closely and the resulting 

 fabric is full of interstices. 



Sumac and willow are prepared for use in the same way by the 

 Panamint Indians. The bark is removed from the fresh shoots by 

 biting it loose at the end and tearing it off. The woody portion is 



