THE BASKET MAKER 



stones into water-tight food baskets, and 

 for decoration a design in colored bark of 

 the procession of plumed crests of the valley 

 quail. In this pattern she had made cook- 

 ing pots in the golden spring of her wed- 

 ding year, when the quail went up two and 

 two to their resting places about the foot 

 of Oppapago. In this fashion she made 

 them when, after pillage, it was possible to 

 reinstate the housewifely crafts. Quail ran 

 then in the Black Rock by hundreds, — 

 so you will still find them in fortunate 

 years, — and in the famine time the women 

 cut their long hair to make snares when 

 the flocks came mornincr and evening: to 

 the springs. 



Seyavi made baskets for love and sold 

 them for money, in a generation that pre- 

 ferred iron pots for utility. Every Indian 

 woman is an artist, — sees, feels, creates, 

 i68 



