1 2 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XVII, 



soup-baskets only. On the other hand, the earthworm, 

 water-snake, milleped, feather, and arrow-point seem to be 

 used indiscriminately on baskets of both types. 



In the arrangement and grouping of designs there is a 

 strongly marked preference for the spiral and zigzag line, 

 the designs running either in equidistant spirals from top to 

 bottom of the soup-baskets and in whorls on the plaques, or 

 in a series of "points" placed symmetrically about the centre 

 of the basket, forming a star. These differ as to the number 

 of points; but three or four, more generally the former, is 

 the rule. The arrangement of the design in a series of hori 

 zontal parallel bands is quite unusual, although it does occur 

 in a few examples. 



The distribution of the designs within the area occupied by 

 the stock discloses one or two points of interest. Apparently 

 of universal distribution and also of most frequent use are the 

 quail-tip, feather, and arrow-point. One can hardly find a 

 family anywhere among whose baskets one of these designs is 

 not represented, or, perhaps, all. Less frequently used, but 

 also known to all the stock, are the earthworm (and the sim 

 ilar wood or big-tongue designs), milleped, grasshopper-leg, 

 etc. Of more local character, but still with a fairly wide dis 

 tribution, are such designs as the rattlesnake and water-snake, 

 confined apparently to the Southern Maidu; or the vine, in 

 use only by the northern sections. Still more local are many 

 of the other designs, such as the duck's wing, squirrel's foot, 

 fish-teeth, moth-miller, tree, flower, etc., which are, so far as 

 known, confined to single valleys or even villages. Of course, 

 one can never be certain that a design is of local occurrence 

 only ; for many designs have died out locally, in all probability, 

 or, even if still in use, the baskets on which they occur may 

 have been overlooked. Except so far as the first cause of error 

 is concerned, the distribution as here given is probably fairly 

 accurate, as a record was kept of all baskets which could be 

 found in every village and house visited, the whole number of 

 baskets seen amounting to several hundred. Owing to the 

 much smaller number of Indians in the southern part of the 

 Maidu region, it is not quite fair to compare the number of de- 



