306 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1884. 



Finally the Algonkin and Iroquois as well as the Southern Indian 

 know how to decorate in baskets with a great variety of rolls looking 

 much like the napkins on the table of a hotel. He draws a splint under 

 the warp stick, gives it a turn up or down, or two turns in different di- 

 rections and draws his loose end tightly under the next warp stick but 

 one. This operation he repeats, forming around his basket one or more 

 rows of projecting ornaments. 



CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICAN BASKETRY. 



• 



The Museum is not rich in South American baskets. Those from 

 British Guiana are precisely like those described by E. im Thurn in his 

 work entitled "Among the Indians of British Guiana." The specimens 

 in hand are all of the twill pattern, wrought from a brown vegetable 

 fiber which shows the same on both sides. This twill is used with good 

 effect in the diagonally woven cassava strainers, which may be con- 

 tracted in length by a corresponding increase of the width. When the 

 grated cassava is packed into this strainer it is suspended and a great 

 weight fastened to the bottom. The same device in cloth is used by 

 country housewives in making curds. There is an entire lack of gaudy 

 dyes in the Guiana baskets, the only colors being the natural hue of 

 the wood and a jet-black varnish. The gorgeous plumage of the birds 

 replace the dyes in ornamentation. Central American basketry does 

 not differ greatly from that of South America except in the finish. 

 Nothing can exceed in severe plainness and accuracy of execution the 

 finer ware of Guiana. 



