1902.] Dixon, Basketry Designs of California Indians. 9 



and was identified positively with the arrow-point by the 

 woman from whom the basket was obtained. No other 

 examples of this design were seen anywhere, and its very con 

 siderable divergence from the rather coherent body of arrow- 

 point designs as a whole, is quite marked. An example 

 apparently of the arrow-point design is that on Plate XIV, 

 Fig. i (Plumas County). Here the design about the edge is 

 the simple zigzag, and is unquestionably the arrow-point. 

 Beneath this is another design in which the zigzags vary 

 greatly in length. This design is not a Maidu design, and is 

 not understood by them, but is distinctly stated to be copied 

 from the baskets of people living to the southward, in all 

 probability the Washoe. It is interesting to note, that, in 

 this case of a clearly borrowed design, no attempt seems to 

 \) made to invent a meaning. 



For the design shown in Fig. 2 (Butte County) no other 

 explanation could be obtained than that it represented an 

 oblong or diamond, the same word ("longko") being used to 

 describe any other diamond-shaped figure, as, for example, 

 the diamonds in a pack of cards. In Fig. 3 (Butte County) 

 the design is that known as "animal tracks," the particular 

 animal being very uncertain. The branching of the pattern 

 from the apices of the "points" is said to mean that the 

 "track runs both ways." The design is of moderate fre 

 quency among the Northern Maidu. 



Of rare occurrence, and very local in distribution, is the 

 design called "mountains and clouds," shown in Fig. 4 

 (Plumas County). Here the superposed triangles represent 

 a mountain-range seen end on, in perspective, the short verti 

 cal lines being trees. The clouds are represented by the 

 zigzag about the edge of the basket; but this is practically 

 identical with the zigzag explained as arrow-points in other 

 cases. A rather asymmetrical and curious design is that ip. 

 Fig. 5 (Butte County), said to be "something turning^round." 

 This is combined with arrow-points also. 



Wood in sticks or billets is shown on Plate XJJf, Fig. i 

 (Placer County), and again in Fig. 2 (El Dorado County). The 

 latter, especially, strongly recalls the big-ton'gtfe on Plate II, 



