ABORIGINAL BASKET-WORK. 297 



Tbe method of manufacture of Haida twined basketry is shown by 

 Mr. J. G. Swan in a specimen collected expressly for the National 

 Museum (Figs. 17-19). Mr. Swan says, "This style of making bas 

 kets differs from that of Cape Flattery. There the women sit on the 

 ground and weave baskets and mats, both of which rest on the ground. 7 ' 



With the Haidas the mats are suspended on a frame and the baskets 

 supported on a stick as in Fig. 17. The black color of the spruce root 

 used in making ornamental patterns is produced by soaking it in the 

 mud. Fig. 18 shows the bottom of the basket made by the twining 

 process. The border of the bottom is marked off by a row of double 

 weaving or a twine built outside the body of the basket just as in the 

 Eskimo basket before described (page 293). A section of the structure 

 is shown in Fig. 19 where the border ends. 



BILHOOLAS, ETC. 



Along the coast of British Columbia the great cedar (Thuja gigantea] 

 grows in the greatest abundance, and its bast furnishes a textile ma 

 terial of the greatest value. Here in the use of this pliable material 

 the savages seem for the first time to have thought of checker- weaving 

 (Fig. 20). Numerous mats, wallets, and rectangular baskets are pro 

 duced by the plainest crossing of alternate strands varying in width 

 from a millimeter to an inch (Fig. 21). Ornamentation is effected 

 both by introducing different-colored strands and by varying the width 

 of the warp or the woof threads. In several examples the bottom of 

 the basket is bordered with one or more lines of the twined or plaited 

 style of weaving, to give greater stability to the form. Cedar mats of 

 great size and made with the greatest care enter as extensively into 

 the daily life of the Indians of this vicinity as do the buffalo robes into 

 that of the Dakota Indians. They may be seen upon the floors, sleep 

 ing berths, before the doors of the houses, and they are also used as 

 sails for their boats and wrapped around the dead. 



It is not astonishing that a material so easily worked should have 

 found its way so extensively in the industries of this stock of Indians. 

 Neither should we wonder that the checker pattern in weaving should 

 first appear on the west coast among the only peoples possessing a ma 

 terial eminently adapted to this form of manipulation. It is only an 

 other example of that beautiful harmony between man and nature which 

 delights the anthropologist at every step of his journey. 



MAKAHS AND CHIHALIS. 



We are now introduced to still another style of basketry, very primi 

 tive but capable of very delicate treatment. I do not know of its ex 

 istence outside of the Nutka stock living on the southwest side of 

 Vancouver Island and on the northwest corner of Washington Terri 

 tory, except in two cases, to be presently mentioned. It may be called 

 the " fish-trap style," since without doubt the finer basketry is the 



