KO. 2235. HOPI INDIAN COLLECTION— HOUGH. 265 



wearing well. The stems are gathered, peeled, rubbed to remove 

 slight irregularities, and dyed. Dyeing is done by various processes 

 and with various materials, subject generally to individual methods 

 and experiences. Body colors as black, white, green, red, and brown, 

 are washed on the splints, or sometimes applied after the basket is 

 finished, the medium being an emulsion of fatty seeds of melon, etc., 

 or saliva, or both, formed by chewing seeds, mixing the resulting 

 liquid with paint and applying to the splints with a tuft of rabbit 

 fur. The colors are ground and mixed on a small flat stone. The 

 materials are kaolin or limestone, white; soot or coal, black; copper 

 carbonate, green; red, brown, and sometimes yellow, iron ochers. 

 Dyes proper, mordanted or not, are subject to the fertile laiowledge 

 and inventiveness of the Hopi women, who produce a considerable 

 range of colors, often of great delicacy and beauty. This familiar- 

 ity with dyes is shown not only in baskets, but in the preparation 

 of bread, which is often given a variety of colors with vegetal dyes. 

 Some little information as to these colors can be set down as follows : 

 Blue is derived from larkspur flowers; dark blue, beans, shells of 

 sunflower seeds, and indigo; green, yellowish to olive, from com- 

 posite flowers and leaves; yellow, from Chrysothamnus and other 

 desert composite flowers; orange yellow, from saffron flow^ers; red, 

 from bark of alder, berries of rhus, and flowers of the cockscomb; 

 brown, red-brown, and yellow-brown, from plants of Thelesperm,a; 

 black, from ink of resin and iron alum as in dyeing leather. Shades 

 of pink, carmine, violet, and lavender are produced apparently by 

 manipulation of the color from cockscomb. As a rule all these 

 vegetal dyes on wood fade rather soon, especially when subjected to 

 actinic light. 



The weaving of wicker baskets is begun by crossing at right angles 

 a number of the rods which form the foundation. The crossing area 

 is sewed with splints, the sewing forming a square area divided into 

 parts by a diagonal stepped line (pi. 34, fig. 1). The great majority 

 of wicker baskets are begun in this manner and very rarely in older 

 specimens is there a modification of the plan. The radiating rods 

 are then diverged evenly and the tangential element worked in. If 

 enough radiating rods have not been provided to fill out the circum- 

 ference, other rods are added as needed. The edge is finished by a 

 spiral sewing of yucca leaf after the ends of the radiating rods have 

 been bent over evenly. This edging is painted red. 



Designs on wicker baskets are similar to those on the coiled bas- 

 kets, but show greater freedom. They are tangential, while those 

 on the coiled baskets are radial, in both cases due to the technic of 

 the design-bearing element. The radial designs are forced from cen- 

 ter to circumference, while the tangential designs are forced to ex- 

 pand from side to side. An identical bird design by the two methods 



