188 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bdll. 192 



Tassel of blanket and decorative yarn: Goat (includes mountain goat) dyed 



dark brown. 



Side border decorative yarn: Goat (includes mountain goat) dyed dark brown. 

 Fur edging: Otter {Lutra*) or sea otter (Enhydra) natural light brown to dark 



brown. 



The warp yams are two-ply, Z-twist (singles S-) approximately 

 one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter; loose to medium degree in twist. 

 They are invariably Ught colored. Warp yarns were set up 14 to the 

 inch and were used in pairs or fours; never singly. The light weft 

 yarns, which form the background color of the blanket, are also two- 

 ply Z-twist as is the warp, but are smaller in diameter and somewhat 

 harder twisted. The dark-brown decorative yarn and fringe yarn is 

 considerably smaller in diameter (a minimum of one-thirty-second of 

 an inch) ; it is also two-ply Z-twist and medium to hard in degree. The 

 dark-brown side border decorative twining yarn is approximately 

 one-eighth of an inch in diameter; two-ply Z-twist and usually hard 

 twist. The attached fringe at the side selvage is light colored, two-ply 

 Z-twist about one-eighth of an inch in diameter. 



Technique. — As previously mentioned, there are fragments of three 

 or possibly four sections of weaving, of distinctive design and 

 technique. Five fragments of the top border of the blanket are 

 present, of which two show the complete complex of techniques 

 (pi. 19, a). The larger of these measures 5}^ inches long (warp) by 6% 

 inches wide (weft); this fragment and the next larger have portions 

 of the top selvage and fur. The warp, as is common for the suspended- 

 warp weaving of all Northwest Coast blankets (with the exception of 

 the Salish which were ring-woven on a tension bar loom) was doubled 

 at the top over a heavy loom cord, and secured with an inital row of 

 plain twining. This row of twining was covered with the otter or sea 

 otter fur band (hide and fur) about 1 inch wide, which was folded over 

 the top edge so that it appears equally on both sides, and sewn. All 

 of the twining in the blanket is carried over paired or quadrupled 

 warps. The pitch of the background weave of the light-colored 

 wefts, of the weftwise decorative twining (three-strand), and of the 

 vertical decorative wefts (three-strand twining) is invariably up-to-the- 

 left. This is in contrast to the elaborate stylized naturalistic Chilkat 

 blankets in which change of direction of pitch of twining may be used 

 to emphasize design breaks and changes. 



The sequence of the twining rows from the first weft working 

 downward is: two rows of plain twining over paired warps; five rows 

 of twilled-twining over paired warps; one row of three-strand dark- 

 brown twining; 10 rows of twilled-twining over quadrupled warps. 



* In view of the horror which the modern Tllngit and Eyak have of the land otter and the taboo against 

 wearing its fur, we may assume that this was sea otter fur.— F. de L. 



