ABOEIQINAL AMERICAN BASKETRY. 475 



Plate 186, one of the interesting- specimens in Mr. Wilcom})'s collec- 

 tion, is an Inyo basket, made in Inyo County ]\y a Tulare (Yokut) 

 squaw. It is 18 inches in diameter. The ornamentation outside the 

 plain center is radial in two bands of stepped patterns, the inner band 

 of six, the outer of thirteen. Each one of the latter having- five 

 parallel elements, there are with the interspaces seventy-eight ele- 

 mentary stepped designs in the l)and. The border is the oft-recurring 

 bunch of colored stitches in groups. 



Plate 187 represents baskets in the collections of, Powers and (Javin 

 and Leonard. They are Tulare, but an examination shows what has 

 heretofore been alluded to, the dili'erence between the open and rather 

 coarse texture of the Tulare basket mentioned by Mr. Wilcomb and 

 the very nuich more refined type of the Inyo-Kern makers as in the 

 lower figure. One characteristic worthy of observation is the use the 

 weaver has made of small difierences of shade in the splints for sewing-, 

 g-iving- a clouded efi'ect to the surface. 



From the Tule River country', says E. L. McLeod, we have the 

 fine flexible work, an improvement on their more northern sistei's in 

 Fresno. But the women of the Tejon and adjacent mountain tribes 

 certainly excelled in their basket work. Their choice ware is much 

 more beautifully finished, their patterns much more numerous, and 

 here is where they show the influence of both north and south in the 

 number and diversity of their patterns, also in the trading of mate- 

 rials. Old baskets have been taken from the caves in the Tejon where 

 the bottom was Mission and the top ])eautifal, tine Tejon; also exam- 

 ples brought from caves in Santa Barbara County that were made 

 over in the Tejon, as the stitch, texture, and all general appearance go 

 to show that they were carried a])out by the Indians with them. 



An excellent example of moving about of l)asket makers is given 

 b}' McLeod. A woman was born at San Gabriel Mission, Avhere 

 she was baptized as ]VIaria Narcissa, and is now about 70 years old. 

 She was brought to the Tejon Canyon while a young child about 9 

 years old, and she still remembers much of the language and customs 

 of her native people. Her uncle Sabastian was General Fremont's 

 guide into the San Joaquin Valley through the Tejon Pass. Maria 

 Narcissa not only learned the language of her adopted people, but 

 man}' of the dialects of the surrounding tribes. Between forty and 

 fifty years ago she was taken as wife by a young American of English- 

 German parentage. The}^ were the parents of a large family of chil- 

 dren, and he gave them all as good an education as possible, especially 

 the eldest daughter. 



She was not able to give uuich light on the general family relation. 

 The tribes from the north as far up as Tule River used to come down 

 to the Tejon for some purpose, either religious or social. She tells of 

 great feasts and dances and great gaming baskets where they used to 



