1902.] Dixon, Basketry Designs of California Indians. 2 3 



of divergent forms. Variations in design, due to differences in 

 weave, may perhaps be noted in one or two cases; as, for 

 example, the strongly rectangular form of the zigzag in the 

 two coiled baskets shown on Plate XXIX, Figs, i, 3, a form 

 which seems to be wanting in baskets of the woven variety, 

 where the angles are more acute. There is, apparently, a 

 restriction of certain designs to certain weaves, inasmuch as 

 the quail-tip, leaf, the particular form of crossing trails shown 

 on Plate XXIX, Fig. 5, etc., are not seen on any of the baskets 

 of the woven variety, except in the case of the quail-tip on 

 Plate XXXVI, Fig. 3. The zigzag, also, seems very much 

 more common on baskets of the woven than on those of the 

 coiled variety. 



In the arrangement of designs, the very frequent use of 

 horizontal or concentric bands on all baskets of the woven 

 type is the most noticeable, this form of arrangement occur 

 ring on half of the baskets here shown. In the case of coiled 

 baskets, the arrangement in spirals, or vertical lines, seems to 

 prevail. If we compare the number and character of the 

 designs found on the forty or more Porno baskets here shown, 

 with those found on baskets of the other stocks here described, 

 we are at once struck by the comparative paucity of designs ; 

 only eleven being here shown. In another series of thirty- 

 five Porno baskets, about six additional designs were 

 found, giving a total of seventeen designs (from seventy- 

 five baskets), as compared with thirteen in the case of the 

 Wintun (from sixteen baskets), sixteen from the Pit Rivers 

 (from thirty baskets), and more than forty from the Maidu 

 (from seventy-nine baskets). Not only is this paucity of 

 designs as a whole very noticeable, but the extraordinarily 

 small number of animal designs is remarkable, only three of 

 the designs here shown being traced to animal motives ; while, 

 on the other hand, more than half of the whole number of 

 designs relate to natural or artificial objects. In all the other 

 stocks here described, the preponderance of animal motives 

 was very marked. In the Porno, then, we have a people 

 who had developed the art of feather decoration to a very 

 high degree, but who were at the same time far behind the 



