360 COILED BASKETRY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA (ETH. ANN. 41 
years ago. On the whole the figures used on bags differed from those 
applied to basketry, but occasionally identical patterns of the same 
name occurred on both. Usually both sides of the bag were alike, 
at least long ago among the Yakima, but a few specimens bore a 
different design on each side, and others were ornamented on one 
face. There were also plain bags of the same material and weave. 
I did not meet any Yakima who could furnish more information on 
bag designs than I obtained from the Klickitat. 
Designs on caps.—Designs on caps among the Klickitat and nearest 
tribes were usually composed of zigzags of various descriptions, 
one design to a cap, but occasionally a very small secondary pattern 
appeared in the band around the margin, usually an ‘‘arrowhead.”’ 
Examples are Plate 66, 0-7. A plain zigzag was common (pl. 66, 0) 
while ‘‘zigzag gill” and ‘‘zigzag leg” were frequently seen, as well 
as ‘‘contracted”’ and ‘‘arrowhead” arranged in zigzags. 
Designs on blankets—The goat-hair blankets formerly woven by 
the Klickitat are said to have been decorated, but I could learn very 
little regarding them. They say many of the designs were similar to 
those used on basketry, evidently entirely geometric. Spirals and 
zigzags were common. However, I did not make extended inquiry 
into the subject. 
Designs on matting.—I did not inquire much about this question, 
but was told by one woman that no ornamentation was applied 
to mats. 
Designs on skin bags.—Although seeking little information on this 
subject, I learned that designs were abundant in quillwork and 
beadwork. Little is now remembered about quillwork, the designs 
of which are said to have been entirely geometric. Solid beadwork 
covering one or both sides of a bag was not uncommon, blue and 
white in about equal proportion being used as background. Most 
of the designs were floral, some copies of flowers growing in the 
mountains, others geometric, representing many elements, including 
the ‘contracted’ design and the ‘‘arrowhead.’”’ Realistic figures, 
representing people and animals, occurred on a very few bags. 
Designs on parfléches.—The Klickitat seem to know nothing of the 
meaning of these. The designs as formerly painted by them and 
the Yakima were all copies of those used by the tribes of the interior 
to the north and east. 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ® 
Throughout the area occupied by the Salish tribes and in the 
country of the Chilcotin and Klickitat it has been seen that cedar is 
the preferred material for coiled baskets, for which spruce is substi- 
tuted only when cedar is not obtainable. There are a few local 
6 See Spinden, op. cit., fig. 15, pl. 6, for these varieties of the ‘‘gill” and “‘leg”’ patterns. 
6 By Helen H. Roberts. 
