ABORIGINAL BASKET-WORK. 293 



infyly fine, tlie plaiting done with exquisite care, the stitches being often 

 as fine as 20 to tlie inch, and rro<]ncMitly bits of colored worsted are em- 

 broidered around the upper i)orti()n, j;iviii«;' a pleasiu^i^ effect. The bor- 

 ders are braided in open worlc from the ends left in the weaving, as 

 follows (Fig. 1): 



At some point on the border, when the solid ])art of the wallet is 

 finislied, the weaver bends two warp strands in oi)posite directions and 

 gives each a twist with its next neighbor. These two are braided with 

 the next warp thread; these three with the next. Now, start at a 

 proper distance from the first point of departure and braid both ways, 

 as before. These braids will meet and ibrm a set of scallops around 

 the edge, fastened at the ends and loose in the middle. Also, at the 

 apex of each scallop will be a lot of warp straws, braided indeed at the 

 base but loose for any required length. The weaver commences with 

 any set of these to make a four-ply braid, catching up the next set and 

 braiding them in as she went along, and fastening off a set as each new 

 set is taken up. The upper border is thus a continuous braid, con- 

 nected at regular intervals with the ai)ices of the braided scallops. 

 When the braider reaches her starting point she catches one braid into 

 another, in a rather clumsy manner, an<i continues to braid a long four- 

 ply string, which, carried in and out the scallops, forms a drawing- 

 string. 



Alaskan Eskimo. — Two types of baskets are found in close prox- 

 imity in the neighborhood of Norton Sound — the twined and the coiled. 

 In the former (Fig. 3) the treatment is precisely the same as in those 

 of Aleutian Islands, but the Eskimo wallet is of coarser material and 

 the plaiting is a little more rudely done. 



The basketry of this type, however, is very strong, and useful for 

 holding food, weapons, impleuients of all kinds, and various other arti- 

 cles. When not in use, the wallets can be folded up into a small space 

 like a grocer's i)aper bag (Fig. ;'>). In the bottoms of the wallets of this 

 class the weft is very open, leaving spaces at least one-half inch wide 

 nncovered. The borders are i)roduced by braiding four strands of sea 

 grass intV) the extremities of the warp strands. 



Ornamentation is produced by darning or whipping one or more rows 

 of colored grass after the body is formed — not necessarily after the 

 whole basket is comi)leted, for each row of whipping may be i)ut on 

 just after the row of coil on which it is based (Fig. 4). Another plan 

 of attaching the ornamentation is very ingenious but not uncommon. 

 Two strands of colored straw or grass are twined just as in the botly of 

 the basket, and at every half turn one of the strands is hooked under a 

 stitch on the body of the basket by a kind of aresene work. This or- 

 nament has a bold relief effect on the outside and is not seen at all on 

 the inside. 



The coiled variety of the Eskimo basketry, mentioned above (Fig. 5), 

 consists of a uniform bunch of grass sewed in a continuous coil by a 

 •whip stitch over the bunch of grass and through just a few bits of grass 



