ABORIGINAL AMERICAN BASKETRY. 5l7 



may be lig-nt or dark, and from the borders i^roject variously notched 

 or ang'ular tio-ures. The one characteristic to which attention is always 

 directed in this ware is the break in the band. It is mentioned else- 

 where on the authority of Matthews that a line drawn from the center 

 of the basket through this open pathway will end at the point where 

 the basket was linished otf, and when it is used as a drum tiiis is the 

 point where the hand of the medicine man must ])e placed in tlie 

 plaque, the radial line pointing eastward. Anothtn- interpretation of 

 tliis, which can not here be proven, is that this l)reak in the orna- 

 mentation has something to do with the passing })ackward and forward 

 of the spirit of the liasket, as in the Pueblo potter}^ decoration." (See 

 %s. VM) and 197.) 



l^r. Ales Hrdlicka writes that the l)asket work of the Hualapai 

 and Havasupai can ])e studied better l)y having it understood that 

 although both these peoples are associated with the Yuman famil}' 

 linguistically, they are decidedly one with the Apaches in physical 

 characteristics. Their basketry, therefore, will have to be compared 

 with that of the Apaches and not that of the Mission Indians of 

 southern California, who are Yuman. The foundation is a solid stem 

 with a welt. The sewing is done with splints of willow, and also now 

 with those made from the young and tender suckers from the cotton- 

 wood tree, from 2 to o feet in length. The geometric ornamentation 

 is in martynia. Among the Hualapai and Havasupai there are three 

 kinds of baskets — that is, three forms exist, but the IIa\'asupai are the 

 best workwomen. The tirst is coarse coiled ware. When the twining 

 is going on they lea^'e the linished ends projecting outside and inside 

 until the whole basket is completed and afterwards they are trimmed 

 otf all at the same time. The second is a plain coiled bowl in the shape 

 of a caraffe, covered with pitch to make it water-tight. The third is 

 decorated coiled work. The tirst is a plaque with l)lack decoration 

 in martynia only. The second shape is more or less cylindrical, or 

 the rim turning in or tending toward a spherical form. In the 

 plaque there is seldom any other decorative color than black, but the 

 other forms, cylindrical r.nd globose, have various colors, although 

 mostly different shades of i'3d. The designs are tooth-shaped or den- 

 tated, star-shaped, and crer lated. No curved lines or animal forms 

 are used. The Hualapai ako make conical carrying baskets with a 

 head-band, the decorations bsiug meager and consist only of lines, no 

 geometric figures being used. Occasionally designs are painted, not 

 woven. (See Plate 229.) 



Plate 230, fig. 2, represents a Havasupai coiled l)asket bowl. The 

 foundation is of rods and splints of willow and the sewing is the same. 

 The most interesting feature is the border. It is false In-aid in which two 

 rows of the coil are involved. A single splint passes down and includes 



" See Washington Matthews, The Night Chant, a Navaho Ceremony. Memoirs 

 of the American Museum Natural History, VI, pp. 1-332, New York, 1902. 



