BOAS] SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 367 
A moment’s consideration will make it clear that with the non- 
interweaving of the weft with the warp strands, as in the Tlingit 
specimen, the work is fundamentally the same as the Koryak skin 
work but achieved in a slightly different manner. The warp when it 
lies on top of the quills takes the place of the skin between the slits, 
while the weft which runs under the quills, and consequently under 
the warp, acts in the same capacity as the thread which runs beneath 
the loops of white dogskin. The skin work would be more nearly 
like the quillwork if the 
thread really did lie on the 
surface and the dogskin were 
passed up over it and down 
on the other side than if 
the thread were threaded 
through the loop. The quill- 
work is even more like the beading on basketry. In fact the tech- 
nique is identical. Substituting the coil for the warp strands, the 
sewing splint for the encircling weft, and the bark ribbon for the 
quill, we have exactly the same idea. 
The only point of difference les in the fact that the quillwork may 
be shoved up close, because the weft is not fixed. In basketry work 
the weft becomes stationary as soon as it sews the coil. It seems to 
the writer that it was because of a realization of this difficulty that 
the basket weaver developed imbrication. Undoubtedly the object 
of imbrication is to cover 
917114 AZ —-~ all the coil stitches rather 
Hae a \ than only alternate 
Gialamas ae i ie Z 2 — stitches, which is all that 
beading can accomplish. 
It being impossible to 
shove the work together 
as in quill embroidery so 
as to conceal the weft 
element lying on top of the ribbon, other means had to be devised. 
It would be most unsatisfactory to allow loops of the bark ribbon to 
fold back over the exposed stitches as the quills fold over the weft, 
for it would be extremely difficult to make the folds lie flat, and 
also, if they did not le flat, they would soon wear off. It seems 
very plausible that in trying to conceal the exposed stitch by folding 
the ribbon back upon it, since they could not shove their work close 
enough to hide it the women may have hit upon the expedient of 
catching the fold beneath a second stitch to hold it flat in place. 
They may have discovered at the same time that the bark ribbon 
would then as a consequence conceal the stitch just made and that 
the continued process would leave none of them exposed. This, 
Fic. 112.—Slit embroidery, Koryak, Siberia 
Fic. 113.—Porcupine quill embroidery, Alaska 
