260 COILED BASKETRY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA [eTH. ANN. 41 
in a rough fashion and carry them home for future reference, if they 
think they are unlikely to have an opportunity to reexamine the 
original. Long ago, before the whites came, such sketches were made 
on birch bark with bits of charcoal. Baskets which are traded from 
one place to another and arouse a woman’s admiration are some- 
times taken as models if she has decided to attempt an entirely new 
design instead of adapting an old and tried figure. If she chooses 
the latter alternative she generally knows beforehand just how she 
will alter the pattern. -It is quite usual for a woman to remark, 
“T will make ‘such and such’ a pattern this time,” naming a well- 
known design, much as our grandmothers in weaving woolen cover- 
lets or patching quilts might have said, ‘‘I shall try the log-cabin 
pattern on this one’’; but such a decision does not prevent the 
basket maker from changing her mind, especially if, on account of 
technical difficulties, the pattern does not fit as well as expected. 
As a rule, however, difficulties are anticipated and allowance is 
made for them, so that very little change in the original plan is 
necessary. There are undoubtedly some standards of taste to 
which all the basket makers adhere as closely as they can, but natu- 
rally considerable variation occurs in the abilities of the different 
women, such as would occur among ourselves, and each woman is 
likewise free to exercise her own ingenuity in working out the adapta- 
tion of her design to its field. Considerable effort is made to produce 
ds much symmetry as possible on the trapezoidal field. Practically 
everyone pays some attention to these points, but an artistically suc- 
cessful result depends very largely on the designs selected for the 
type of basket. With some women far more attention is given to 
the design itself, its symmetry, and execution, than to its suitable 
position in the field. 
Although the number of coils to be covered by a pattern is not 
usually calculated, the relative size of the figure as compared with 
that of the entire field serves as the guide. The coils are only counted 
when there is to be a second tier of designs above the first, composed 
of the same figures, unless these are enlarged to correspond with the 
increased size of the field. 
As far as the stitches are concerned, counting them would not 
assist in obtaining exact duplication of patterns on account of the 
constant, almost imperceptible variation in the width of the sewing 
splint, which amounts to very little spatial difference in the course 
of a few stitches but which becomes very noticeable in a large design. 
Usually more care is exercised to make the stitches even where they 
are covered by imbrication than where they are not, especially if 
more than one stitch is covered by the same fold, as happens at times 
when the stitches are small, since there are greater chances of notice- 
able variation in the combination of two stitches than im single ones. 
