BOAS] DESIGN ELEMENTS 249 
by the employment of two contrasting colors. The vertical stripes 
on the basket in Plate 29, ec, are decorated with these rare squares. 
A nine-field but not necessarily nine-stitch square is fairly common 
on modern baskets; and has been seen on some rather well worn 
specimens. Usually it extends over three coils in height and is about 
six stitches wide. The nine fields are of alternating black and white, 
or red and white, so that the effect is that of a dark cross on a light 
background. Usually the central square is light. The related figure, 
without the four light corner squares which provide the so-called 
background, is frequently interpreted as the “‘star’’ or ‘‘little spot”’ 
design, and as such it appears either alone or in a series. Figure 47 
shows this nine-field square. 
The larger squares, totaling in all 25 units or more, are, on the 
whole, rare and usually found on new baskets. One Lillooet speci- 
men displays large squares divided diagonally, covering three broad 
coils and extending for six stitches, but these are very rare. A very 
few Thompson specimens give 
the figure in black outline, 
with an unimbricated center 
or one filled in with white 
imbrication. Such figures 
cover about four coils, and 
from five to eight stitches usu- 
ally, although larger ones have 
been noted on very new speci- 
mens (pl. 41, g). Another 
rare white square is delineated 
partially by a narrow black 
band along the sides, but not at bottom or top, while a still more 
peculiar variant has a line of black along the bottom and the right 
side (pl. 41, A). This type is closely related to triangular forms. In 
this case the artist goes out of her way to complete the square form; 
in partially outlined triangles she does not. Black solid squares about 
three coils high and seven stitches wide are more common, even on 
earlier baskets, and appear alone or in vertical, horizontal, or diagonal 
series (pl. 36,@). In the last-named arrangement their corners may 
or may not touch; in the first two they are either widely separated or 
appear in close formation with only narrow intervening stripes of white. 
Banded squares are six stitches wide and extend over three coils. 
Others are ten stitches wide and extend over five coils (pl. 7, a), or six 
stitches wide and extend over four coils (pl. 26, c). Some are divided 
into vertical stripes, each one or two stitches wide. When there are 
three stripes, the center is white, the outer two are black. A horizon- 
tal arrangement of a similar nature on another basket gives rather the 
impression of three narrow separate bands than of a subdivided square, 
Bee 
ITTEUWTT YN shi 
Le beuaee ‘aig Batter tis 
peal ny 
Fic. 47.—Basket with star design, U.S.N.M. 217438 
