ABORIGINAL AMERICAN BASKETRY. 



537 



the top the t'orni of an olilique hexagon. The ends are hekl in place 

 b}^ a stout cord of hair in natural brown color. The warp of this 

 basket is formed by winding a white string round and round these 

 sticks on the outside, about one-eighth of an inch apart, from the 

 bottom to the top. The weft is a series of vertical rows of twined 

 weaving, in some places close together and in others wide apart, for 

 ornamental eliect. The vertical stripes seen on the surface are in 

 green, red, l)lack, and white, twined, and in twined weaving, each block 

 including two or more warp strands. By using two colors in the twine 

 the patterns arc variegated on the surface, first the white and then the 

 colored strand coming into view. B}' comparing these specimens with 

 the one from the Arikara Indians, lig. li>5, it will be seen that in the 

 latter two of the bows projected downward and formed the l)ottom, on 

 which the liasket rests. But in this case no such protection is afforded. 

 The woman has sewed a coarse piece of woven stuif along the bottom 



Fig. 212. 

 axcient cdlled basket from chile. 



as a protection of the more delicate threads. The specimen is in the 

 Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, and the colored plate was fur- 

 nished by Dr. George A. Dorsey. 



Fig. 212 is a fragment of a coiled basket from a copper mine in the 

 district of Chuc^uicamata in the desert of Atacama, Chile. It was 

 found, together with other industrial implements, associated with the 

 body of a woman who undoubtedly met her death on the spot. From 

 the dislocated })ackbone and the small stones embedded in the skin, it 

 is supposed that she was buried by a caving in of the works. The 

 basket of which this is a fragment, was in ever}^ respect similar to the 

 Pima ware in southern Arizona. This fragment bears such remarkable 

 similarity to Pima workmanship that J. W. Benham, of Arizona, who 

 is most familiar with it, was struck with the Chilean example and 

 wondered whether it were possible that the Pima Indians and the 

 Chileans could have been under the same instructors. 



