210 COILED BASKETRY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA LETH. ANN. 41 
fastened. A medial sewing extends down the center of the handle 
and across the bowl. It is said that there are many different methods 
of making spoons, but this is the only one of which a full description 
could be obtained. 
Plate 16, b, shows a modern basket with a partition. Such devices 
were unknown in former times, the form being derived from knife 
and fork baskets and boxes belonging to the white man. In fact 
there is scarcely an object which has been introduced by trade with 
the white men and which can possibly be copied in basketry that 
these people have not attempted to make. In addition to their 
inventive and creative genius which has led them to originate many 
odd forms whose construction is no easy task, and whose ornamen- 
tation is so difficult of satisfactory accomplishment that the beautiful 
finished products challenge admiration, their imitative faculty is also 
highly developed, as the foregoing descriptions have made clear. 
BABY CARRIERS 
Baby carriers of basketry were rather rare long ago, although 
they are common enough at the present day. Nevertheless they are 
quite an old invention. Formerly the carriers were of bark. Some 
say that the Thompson adopted them from the Lower Lillooet, who 
made theirs of rather narrow, flat coils or slats of cedar wood. The 
Thompson have always made their carriers of slats or flat coils 
rather than of round ones. Sometimes they are entirely constructed 
of slats, or else several kinds of technique are used, one kind for the 
bottom, another for the sides. In fact, there are five principal types. 
The first is of round coil throughout, the second of flat coil through- 
out, though usually even on these a round coil connects the bottom 
and sides and finishes the rim. The third type has the middle part 
of the bottom constructed of flat coils, with round coils for the rest 
of the basket, while the fourth has practically the whole bottom of 
flat coil. The last type has the bottom, to above the curve, of round 
coil, with the remainder of flat coil, except the rim, which is again 
round. In the place of flat coils, wooden slats are frequently used, 
being wrapped with a sewing splint in the same manner as other 
foundation material. 
In addition to being sewed with brightly colored splints, which at 
the present time are usually tinted with commercial dyes in several 
colors besides the customary red and black, the carriers are partially 
covered and lined with gay pieces of cloth and sometimes decorated 
with shells or other little articles which jingle pleasantly. 
In former times, according to the old people, all baskets were very 
simple. They were rarely decorated with designs in colored materials. 
Even now those people who are more conservative and try to main- 
tain the old traditions prefer only natural tints or simple figures. 
