374 COILED BASKETRY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA [ETH. ANN. 41 
The mouth and head devices and various forms of meanders or 
notches are very common with many of the tribes of the interior of 
British Columbia and of the coast. The meander seems in its double 
vertical arrangement to be allied to the old porcupine-quill work 
pattern. Figure 117 is a design taken from a coast Salish basket in 
twined weave, which was worked in overlay as was described on 
page 362 for Skeena River baskets. It is interesting to compare this 
with Figure 108, e; Figure 116, Sketch 685; and Figure 105, Sketch 17, 
as well as with the Chilcotin designs in Figure 106, Sketch 15, and 
Figure 107, Sketch 7, where the pattern is horizontal. 
The Chilcotin have a number of designs which are related to those 
of the Tlingit who live northwest of them across the mountains, par- 
ticularly those given in Figure 106, Sketches 31, 32, and Figure 107, 
Sketches /-g. On the other hand, they possess many which resemble 
those so popular among the Thompson and Lillooet. These are 
sketches 8, 22, 26, Figure 106, and g, 
Figure 107, which may be compared with 
the analogous sketches in the Thompson 
table. Such designs are found with com- 
parative frequency on California basketry 
and in the ‘‘droppers”’ of the Tlingit. But 
they evidently date back farther than bas- 
ketry, for they appear on the painted or 
poreupine quill embroidered fringes of 
skin garments (fig. 114) and in great num- 
bers and infinite variety on the painted 
parfléches and beadwork of the Plains. 
Fic. 117.—Designs from coast Salish A comparison of the designs just men- 
ace tioned with those given by Doctor Wissler 
in ‘‘The Decorative Art of the Sioux Indians” ” and by Doctor 
Kroeber in his paper on the Arapaho* will reveal striking simi- 
larities. When it is remembered how the Plains tribes traveled, 
often far to the west, especially after adopting the horse as a 
means of conveyance, and that the parfléches which always accom- 
panied these nomads as trunks, fastened to the saddle, were 
brightly painted in bold designs and the garments similarly em- 
broidered with multicolored beads, it would be indeed surprising 
if the western peoples were not attracted by these gay bits of color 
and failed to be impressed with designs which stood out so sharply on 
contrasting backgrounds. Thus it seems that the basket weavers of 
the west owe many of the patterns composed of series and various 
arrangements of triangles to their Plains brethren to the east. 
72 Clark Wissler. The Decorative Art of the Sioux Indians. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. XVII, 
pp. 231-277. 
7A. L. Kroeber. The Arapaho. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. XVIII, pp. 36-150. 
