604 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (Bull. 137 



They also make very pretty baskets of rushes and silk-grass, dyed of various 

 colours and figures, which are made by the Indians of Virginia, and those In- 

 habiting further north. (Catesby, 1731-43, vol. 2, p. xi.) 



In Florida, judging by Le Moyne's illustrations, there was as great 

 a variety of baskets as anywhere else in the Gulf province, and they 

 added to these receptacles of palmetto leaves. In 1562 a Timucua 

 chief presented Ribault with "a basket made of palm boughs, after 

 the Indian fashion, and wrought very artificially," while 3 years 

 later one of his lieutenants received "little panniers skilfully made 

 of palm leaves, full of gourds, red and blue." (Laudoimiere, 1586, 

 p. 17; French, 1869, p. 180; Swanton, 1922, p. 355.) Gushing, on 

 the basis of his finds at Key Marco, declared it "obvious" that the 

 former occupants "understood well, not only platting, but weaving 

 and basketry-making too" (Gushing, 1896, p. 363). 



For the Indians of the interior, Adair's general account is the best 

 early statement we have : 



They make the handsomest baskets I ever saw, considering their materials. 

 They divide large swamp canes, into long, thin, narrow splinters, which they 

 dye of several colours, and manage thfe workmanship so well, that both the 

 inside and outside are covered with a beautiful variety of pleasing figures; 

 and, though for the space of two inches below the upper edge of each basket, 

 it is worked into one, through the other ijarts they are worked asunder, as if 

 they were two joined a-top by some strong cement. A large nest consists of 

 eight or ten baskets, contained within each other. Their dimensions are differ- 

 ent, but they usually make the outside basket about a foot deep, a foot and a 

 half broad, and almost a yard long . . . Formerly, those baskets which the 

 Cheerake made, were so highly esteemed even in South Carolina, the politest 

 of our colonies, for domestic usefulness, beauty, and skilful variety, that a 

 large nest of them cost upwards of a moidore. (Adair, 1775, p. 424.) 



Gatesby : 



The baskets made by the more southern Indians, particularly the Choctaugns 

 and Cliigasaws, are exceeding neat and strong, and is one of their master- 

 pieces in mechanicks. These are made of cane in different forms and sizes, 

 and beautifully dyed black and red with various figures; many of them are 

 so close wrought that they will hold water, and are frequently used by the 

 Indians for the purposes that bowls and dishes are put to. But that which 

 they are more especially useful for to the English inhabitants is for port- 

 mantuas, which being made in that form are commodious, and will keep out wet 

 as well as any made of leather. (Catesby, 1731-43, vol. 2, p. xi.) 



In 1739 Oglethorpe mentions the use of "a Sieve made of Reed 

 or Gane" in the preparation of corn meal by the Greek Indians of 

 Goweta town (Bushnell, 1908, p. 574), and Swan includes the follow- 

 ing note in his description of the industries of the Greeks at the 

 end of the same century : 



Baskets for gathering, and fanners for cleaning corn, and other uses, are 

 made of cane splinters of various sizes, but all of one shape. The workmanship 

 of these is neat and well executed, except that they have neither covers nor 

 handles. (Swan, 1855, p. 692.) 



