24 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XVII, 



other stocks in the number and variety of the designs used. 

 Perhaps the energy devoted to the elaboration of feather 

 ornament drew the attention away from the development of 

 new designs. But, be that as it may, the greatest manual 

 v^xL^ dexterity and technical skill were here combined with the 

 greatest artistic poverty. 



A feature which differentiates the designs of this stock from 

 all the others spoken of, is the existence in many cases more 

 particularly on baskets of the woven type, with spiral designs 

 of a gap in the design, filled by a design of a different sort. 

 This break in the design, which is known as "dau," is said to 

 be for the purpose of "letting the soul escape." The same 

 break is found, if one may judge from a very few specimens 

 only, also on the baskets of the Yuki, living immediately 

 north of the Porno, and in both cases suggests at once com 

 parison with the similar openings left in designs on basketry 

 and pottery in the Southwestern States. There are so few 

 designs representing animals, that one can draw no very satis 

 factory conclusions as to the extent to which conventionaliza 

 tion has here progressed. It would seem, from what little 

 material we have, however, that it had reached about the same 

 stage as among the Maidu. As compared with the almost 

 universal practice of the Maidu, of placing but one design on a 

 , basket, we find here exactly the opposite tendency; several 

 ' or re P e "titions of the same design, being the almost 

 universal rule, the preference being for a considerable number, 

 such as four or five. 



The designs used by Indians of this stock, then, would seem 

 to be characterized, as a whole, by their small number, by 

 the great infrequency of animal designs, by the tendency to 

 arrange the designs in a series of horizontal or concentric 

 bands and to place a large number of designs on the same 

 basket, and last, but not least in importance, by the occur 

 rence of the "dau," or gap in the design, in many cases, and 

 by the great development of feather decoration, which art was 

 here carried to its greatest perfection. 



Having described and attempted to characterize separately 



