144 



THE PIMA INDIANS 



[ETH. ANN. 26 



The former type is furnished with a bottom of willow branches. 

 The sides are built up by twisting rolls of arrow bush with the butts 

 thrust into the coil beneath to bind the whole together." This type 

 is used for storing mesquite beans on the tops of the houses or sheds 

 (fig. 4). They are also built on the ground in groups, which are 

 inclosed by a low fence to protect them from stock. They are made 

 before the harvest begms, and as the coils are large and there is no 

 close work required a large bin may be built up ui half a day. 



The straw baskets have their coils fastened with strips of willow 

 bark about 5 mm. in width. The stitches pass tlirough the upper 

 marghi of tlie last coil and are about 20 nmi. apart. The coils are 

 from 1 to 2 cm. in diameter. The baskets are from one-half to IJ 



Fig. 67. Small storage buskot. showing woave 



meters hi height. They are covered by a circular disk of the same 

 material or, more frequently, by a section of the bottom of an old 

 worn-out basket. 



In makuig these baskets two rolls are carried around at once, but 

 as they are made with some care it takes much longer than to make a 

 bin of arrow bushes. The baskets are made after the harvest, when 

 the straw is available. 



o The remains of a basket of this type were found by the writer in June, 1901, when examining the two 

 large clia-houses about 4 miles south of the Salt river, opposite the mouth of the Tonto. Bandelier 

 gives the ground plan of these structures La Papers of Archeol. Inst.. .\m. ser., iv, pt. ii, 42ii. This 

 would suggest rclationsliip with the Pueblo cliff-dwellers (assuming that the place had not been 

 occupied recently by Apaches or .other invaders', were it not for the fact that this tyiie of bins, as 

 well as the arbors on which they are built, prevails among the southern California tribes. 



