ABORIGINAL BASKET-WORK. 293 



ingly fine, the plaiting done with exquisite care, the stitches being often 

 as fine as 20 to the inch, and frequently bits of colored worsted are em 

 broidered around the upper portion, giving a pleasing effect. The bor 

 ders are braided in open work from the ends left in the weaving, as 

 follows (Fig. 1): 



At some point on the border, when the solid part of the wallet is 

 finished, the weaver bends two warp strands in opposite directions and 

 gives each a twist with its next neighbor. These two are braided with 

 the next warp thread; these three with the next. Now, start at a 

 proper distance from the first point of departure and braid both ways, 

 as before. These braids will meet and form a set of scallops around 

 the edge, fastened at the ends and loose in the middle. Also, at the 

 apex of each scallop will be a lot of warp straws, braided indeed at the 

 base but loose for any required length. The weaver commences with 

 any set of these to make a four-ply braid, catching up the next set and 

 braiding them in as she went along, and fastening off a set as each new 

 set is taken up. The upper border is thus a continuous braid, con 

 nected at regular intervals with the apices of the braided scallops. 

 When the braider reaches her starting point she catches one braid into 

 another, in a rather clumsy manner, and continues to braid a long four- 

 ply string, which, carried in and out the scallops, forms a drawing- 

 string. 



ALASKAN ESKIMO. Two types of baskets are found in close prox 

 imity in the neighborhood of Norton Sound the twined and the coiled. 

 In the former (Fig. 3) the treatment is precisely the same as in those 

 of Aleutian Islands, but the Eskimo wallet is of coarser material and 

 the plaiting is a little more rudely done. 



The basketry of this type, however, is very strong, and useful for 

 holding food, weapons, implements of all kinds, and various other arti 

 cles. When not in use, the wallets can be folded up into a small space 

 like a grocer's paper bag (Fig. 3). In the bottoms of the wallets of this 

 class the weft is very open, leaving spaces at least one-half inch wide 

 uncovered. The borders are produced by braiding four strands of sea 

 grass into the extremities of the warp strands. 



Ornamentation is produced by darning or whipping one or more rows 

 of colored ^rass after the body is formed not necessarily after the 

 whole basket is completed, for each row of whipping may be put on 

 just after the row of coil on which it is based (Fig. 4). Another plan 

 of attaching the ornamentation is very ingenious but not uncommon. 

 Two strands of colored straw or grass are twined just as in the body of 

 the basket, and at every half turn one of the strands is hooked under a 

 stitch on the fyody of the basket by a kind of aresene work. This or 

 nament has a bold relief effect on the outside and is not seen at all on 

 the inside. 



The coiled variety of the Eskimo basketry, mentioned above (Fig. 5), 

 consists of a uniform bunch of grass sewed in a continuous coil by a 

 whip stitch over the bunch of grass and through just a few bits of grass 



