[13] BULLETIlSr 39, UlsriTED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Fig. 16. 

 twined openwork of the ai-euts. 



Rept. U.S.N.M., 1884, pi. 1. fig. 2. 



on each other. This is a very primitive mode of weaving. Plain twined 

 basketry is made on exactly the same plan; there is a set of warp ele- 

 ments which ma}^ be reeds, or splints, or string, arranged radiallj" on 

 the bottom and parallel on the body. The weft consists of two strips 

 of root or other flexible material, 

 and these are twisted as in form- 

 ing a two-ply string passing over 

 a warp stem at each half turn (tig. 

 15). Pleasing varieties of this 

 plain twined weaving will be 

 found in the Aleutian Islands. 

 The Aleuts frequently use, for 

 their warp, stems of wild vjq or 

 other grasses, in which the straws 

 are split and the two halves pass 

 upward in zigzag form; each half 

 of a warp is caught alternately 

 with the other half of the same 

 straw and with a half of the 

 adjoining straw, making a series 

 of triangular instead of rectangular spaces (fig. 16). A still further 

 variation is given to plain twined ware by crossing the warps. 



In bamboo basketry of eastern Asia these crossed warps are also 

 interlaced or held together by a horizontal strip of bamboo passing 



in and out as in ordinary weaving. 

 In such examples the interstices 

 are triangular, but in the twined 

 example here described (lig. 17) 

 the weaving passes across between 

 the points where the warps inter- 

 sect each other, leaving hexagonal 

 interstices. This peculiar combin- 

 ation of plain twined weft and 

 crossed warp has not a wide dis- 

 tribution in America, but examples 

 are to be seen in southeastern 

 Alaska and among relics found in 

 Peruvian graves. 



2. Diagonal twined i v ewving . — In 

 diagonal twined weaving the twist- 

 ing of the weft filaments is precisely 

 the same as in plain twined weaving. The difference of the texture 

 on the outside is caused by the manner in which the wefts cross the 

 warps. This style abounds among the Ute Indians and the Apache, 

 who dip the bottles made in this fashion into pitch and thus make a 



Fig. 17. 



crossed warp twined weaving of the makah 



indians, washington state. 



Rept. U.S.N.M., 1884, pi. 16, fig. 31. 



