COLLECTORS OF AMERICAN BASKETRY. 



[24] 



appear. On the surface of the bam-tsu-wu basketry the Porno weaver 

 adds pretty bits of bird feathers and delicate pieces of shell. The 

 basket represents the wealth of the maker, and the gift of one of these 

 to a friend is considered to be the highest compliment. 



H. Splint foundation. — ^In basketry of this type the foundation 

 consists of a number of longer or shorter splints massed together and 

 sewed, the stitches passing under one or more of the splints in the' 

 coil beneath (fig. 37). In the Pomo language it is called chilo., but it 

 has no standing in that tribe. In the Great Interior Basin, where the 

 pliant material of the California tribes is wanting, only the outer and 

 younger portion of the stem will do for sewing. The interior parts 

 in such examples are made up into the foundation (fig. 31 H). Such 

 ware is rude when the sewing passes carelessly through the stitches 



Fig. 37. 

 foundation op splints. 



Rept. U.S.N. M., 1884, pi. 4, flg. 6. 



Pig. 38. 

 interlocking coils, straw fodndation. 



Rept. U.S.N.M.. 1884, pi. 27, flg. 51. 



below; in others the splitting is designed and beautiful. In the Kliki- 

 tat basketry the pieces of spruce or cedar root not used for sewing 

 material are also worked into the foundation.^ 



I. Grass-coil Imsketry. — The foundation is a bunch of grass or rush 

 stems, of small midribs from palm leaves, or shredded yucca. The 

 effect in all such ware is good, for the reason that the maker has per- 

 fect control of her material. Excellent examples of this kind are to 

 be seen in the southwestern portions of the United States, among the 

 pueblos and missions, and in northern Africa. The sewing maj^ be 

 done with split stems of hard wood, willow, rhus, and the like, or, as 

 in the case of the Mission baskets in southern California, of the stems 

 of rushes {Juncus acntxis)., or stiff grass {Eplcainjjes rigiduiv). (See 

 fig. 38 and the cross section given in fig. 31 I). In the larger granary 



^ Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, Anthropology, I, p. 189, 

 fig. 131 a. 



