228 COILED BASKETRY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA [eTH. ANN. 41 
aseparate piece. To use a watch-spring coil base, which is continu- 
ous with the side, adding the design as the work proceeds, is thought 
to be very slow and awkward. An imbricated bottom worked in 
the ordinary way—with the side which bears the design held toward 
the maker—is reversed after being completed and the walls are added 
with their designs, for, if it were to be made in one piece with the 
sides, either the design on it would necessarily be applied on the 
side away from the worker or else the coiling would have to be re- 
versed at the rim of the base. 
Where imbrication or beading was not desired, as was the case 
with the Shuswap, a very pleasing ornamental effect was achieved 
by the furcation of the coil stitches in alternate groups of coils, those 
between being sewed in the ordinary manner. At other times verti- 
cal or diagonal lines of bifurcation were attempted (fig. 41). Regular 
bifurcation was practiced only to a limited degree, and then chiefly 
on baskets ornamented only with beading or utterly bare. It was 
Tt 
( pansy AK SARNONOAD 
ATRERNR 
(A i « in poten 9 un 
NA creer tan w 
iN A Raat TR aye Aa va us Ba emf 
yeaa Won mL aN Sa EUAN 8 me 
eaaru NAY: wg, Ny wear esas Buty ay My 
ern in Pec eee 
i AANANT AA erent rf 
VAC TKN Ty 
\ Rene | \) Neal uN HANNE a if 1 NAA if i wet Hy i 
sa > che 
Yas Wt 
Fic. 41.—Bifureation of coil stitches 
used on bottoms, from the centers to the corners (pl. 6, 6). As a 
rule the stitches are fureated, but the predominant aim is a water- 
tight product, even if regular stitching must be sacrificed. 
A few other means of deriving an ornamental effect were tried and 
practiced to some extent. Darker tinted sewing splints were used 
on different coils, giving a banded appearance, and on rare occasions 
the use of larger or finer splints for sewing groups of coils was also 
attempted. 
DESIGN FIELDS 
GENERAL REMARKS 
The Thompson informants all agree that any design may be used 
on any kind of basket and that its selection does not depend on the 
type of bottom used. 
On round, high forms resembling the modern pail practically any 
type of decoration may be successfully applied. The continuous, un- 
broken wall surface lends itself equally well to horizontal arrange- 
men nts in bands, to vertical stripes , all-over arrangements of isol: ited 
37 See also Teit, The Lillooet Indians, pp. 205 et seq. 
