BOAs] APPENDIX 447 
well informed about her craft and likewise a very excellent technician. 
Much of the information about the practices of the basket maker was 
obtained from her. 
In regard to the structure of burden baskets she said that she 
regulated the flare and rounding entirely by eye. The uniformity of 
the coil was controlled partly by eye and partly by touch. If the 
coil became enlarged at any point the next coil was reduced where 
it lay over the irregularity so that each round maintained a proper 
level. In many designs Mrs. Paul counted her stitches. In making 
a design like that shown in Figure 69 she counted the stitches which 
composed the blocks but not those in the intervening spaces, and 
therefore each block conformed to a standard which she had set. 
She realized that some stitches would be slightly wider than others, 
and that therefore the actual length of the figures would vary some- 
what, but that this variation was scarcely noticeable. This variation 
in stitches did, however, create another discrepancy which was more 
troublesome, for the resulting figures were often not perfectly rectan~ 
gular. Owing to a wider sewing splint being used on one coil or 
another, or on account of the lean of the stitches the outline might 
result as in Figure 122, 28. In so conspicuous a point as the number 
of coils between figures, Mrs. Paul and all the other women were 
very careful to count, but the vertical alignment was effected by 
eye. She tried always when first introducing the design so to space 
the figures about the circumference, on the sides and ends, that they 
would be approximately equidistant and the corners not too bare. 
The increasing flare caused the bare corner field to become larger at 
each round of the coil, especially when the decoration was in vertical 
bands. If the bareness was not too noticeable she never used “‘fill- 
ers.” She felt that if the vertical stripes were properly spaced in the 
beginning, fillers would not be required. It was the custom to use 
for the filler a design different from that used for the rest of the 
basket. Occasionally she would endeavor to adapt the bands to 
the shape of the field, wholly by eye, when the result would appear 
as in Figure 122, 29. With small, all-over patterns she often meas- 
ured in the beginning with a splint and marks as described by No. 29, 
so as to start them about the circumference as nearly equidistant as 
possible and she also counted the stitches, both those in the designs 
and those in the intervening spaces. If the arrangement was scat- 
tered and plenty of room was allowed between the figures she pro- 
ceeded by eye only. 
Sometimes when making a design such as a vertical stripe sub- 
divided into sectiors of a given height it became necessary to accom- 
modate the height of the basket to the design, and this she considered 
when she first determined the approximate height of the walls. Thus, 
if two figures, for instance, had been completed and four were the 
