378 COILED BASKETRY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA [ern any. 41 
had occurred. It will be remembered that the women of the Uta’mqt 
and Lytton bands are particularly fine craftswomen and unusually 
clever inventors, among whom there exists a constant endeavor to 
effect new combinations. To them probably is due the endless 
variety of patterns which prevail at the present time, mostly based 
on the old strata of designs. In addition, many new and utterly 
different ideas are continually being carried out. Of late years new 
realistic designs, elaborately wrought and striking in their realism, 
are occasionally seen. Notable among them are the beautiful but- 
terfly patterns. Articles of white manufacture, such as oilcloth, 
borders of printed handkerchiefs, calico, etce., are eagerly seized as 
affording new conceptions for patterns. The weavers have even 
gone so far as to adopt the outlines of the white man’s window and 
door. But all the while there seems to be still an infiltration of 
patterns from the Plains. Figures 118 and 119 are collections from 
the sketches of designs which have been described as new by the 
informants. Among them will be noted many which show Plains 
affiliation, such as 416-419, 599-603, others which are of native 
origin, such as 690, and some taken from oilcloth or other articles 
introduced by the white man. It will be noted that some of these 
designs also figured among those elsewhere declared to be old, so that 
differences of opinion and uncertainty of knowledge undoubtedly 
exist to a considerable degree among the people themselves. But 
on the whole the divisions into old and new are probably correct, 
even though they include by no means all of the designs which could 
be so classified. 
The richness of Thompson imagination and inventive genius is 
manifested also in the variety and character of the interpretations 
applied to the designs, often, indeed, to the same figure, and in the 
ways in which the same form may be treated with color or surface 
subdivision. The technical exactness and powers of observation 
possessed by the people are made evident by the almost unlimited 
number of descriptive terms applied to variations of designs, minute 
differences in structure and surface treatment. 
It is rather interesting to compare the character of Thompson 
interpretations with those noted by Barrett and Kroeber as in use in 
California in order to see if among the Thompson a prevailing tend- 
ency exists toward representing particular objects or classes of objects 
and whether it corresponds to those tendencies found elsewhere. 
According to this point of view, the Thompson designs fall into 
six groups. These are: I, Natural phenomena; I, Natural objects; 
Ill, Artificial objects; IV, Plants; V, Animals, birds, and their 
parts; VI, Geometric or descriptive. Disregarding the descriptive 
names applied to designs, such as “ scattered,” “leaning,” “en- 
circling,” ete., which are almost legion and are applied rather on 
account of the position or arrangement of the design than because of 
