THE OREGON NATURALIST. 123 



nations is a deft worker; witness the delicate the preceding row with the bone awl and thread- 

 drawn work of the Mexicans, the rich work ing the spruce through and tightly drawing it 

 from the far East, the bead and b.isketry of the into place, thereby making a locked stitch and 

 North American Infli.ins. water light, so that if it were possible to draw 



To gather, prepare and manipulate the raw out the coil the basket would still jireserve its 



materia! meant tmie and arduous labor. shape. This coiling and whipping is continued 



The foundation consists of the roots of young with the spruce alone until the bottom is com- 



spruce and cedar trees; it is macerated and pleted, for the decoration seldom if ever appears 



torn into threadlike shreds, and soaked for on the bottom; if it does, only in a sparsely 



weeks and montiis in water to rid it of any made pattern. 



superfluous vegetable matter and to render it When the last coil of the bottom is made, 

 strong and pliable. The ornamentation is al- then the decoration begin"?, A strip of the 

 most all made of Zerophyllum tenex, which is grass is laid on and lashed in place, then turn- 

 commonly called "squaw's gras«." It grows ed back and lashed again, each time being 

 on the east side of the Cascade mountains and held in place by the all-important spruce thong, 

 can only be gathered during the late summer, This lapjnng b ck and forth gives it the name 

 when the snow has melted and the grass has "imbricated 



matured. This gras> resembhs the plant of Eveiy time a stitch is made it takes the cir- 



ganien cultivation, Yucra tilamentosa. cuitsof the spruce whipping to hold it in place, 



The broad, swordlike leaves are split into each time following the puncture made by the 



the requisite width, and if they are to remain bone awl, which is exceedingly hard work, 



the natural color, an ivoiy white, they are One round of a large basket or three of a small 



soaked in water only; bnt if they are to be dyed one is a hard day's work for an experienced 



they are soake.l in mud and charcoal for black, basket maker. 



for brown a dye made from the willow bark. The different colors and sliades are introduced 



and for yellow a longer time in the water. according to the weaver's fancy, and always 



Sometimes the bast or inner bark of the forming a complete and well-designed pattern, 

 cedar tree is dyed black instead of the grass; oftentimes intricate and elaborate. When the 

 but it is not so durable owing to its short requisite number of stitches of one color has 

 fibrous texture; or the willow bark itself is been made, the grass is cut off and laid aside 

 used instead of dyeing the grass brown; but until it appears again, for the ornamentation 

 the willow looks slightly shriveled, and neither never appears on the inner side, for it would be 

 presents the smooth surface as when made of ruined by the berry juice or hidden by the con- 

 squaw's grass, although only apparent to the tents, 

 practiced eye. This wearisome labor goes on round after 



The mode of dyeing was handed down from round until the top is reached, when some are 



generation to generation. finished smoothly and plainly, while others are 



After these preliminaries, that ran through given a scallop. The last round of all is 



weeks and months, ihe del worker seated her- curiously anrt closely interlaced, with the ends 



self upon the ground and began lu r work, dexterously hidden and secured, well calculated 



either by a spring or stream, by taking a sm^U to withstand rough usuage over mountains and 



bunchof these water--i):iketl spruce roots, which, plains, on the backs of women, on the sides of 



when tightly compre^>fl, was about the size ol horses and in boats, loaded and unloaded, 



a lead pencil. times without number and lasting a lifetime. 



She began at the bottom of a basket by a The labor of making a basket had many 



coil, tightly lashing it with a soaked thong of interruptions, for the basket maker gathered 



spruce root, each time piercing the stitch in the fuel, gathered and prepared the food, which 



