178 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



The Hnp.i Indians of northwestern California belong to the Tinnean 

 stock. They have been described in a paper entitled, " The Eay Col- 

 lection in the U. S. National Museum."* The cradle-basket of the Hupas 

 of northwestern California is a slipper shaped, open work basket oi 



osier warp, and twined weaving 

 constitutes the body of the cradle. 

 (Fig. 11.) It is woven as follows: 

 Commencing at the upp« rend, the 

 small euds of the twigs are held in 

 place one eighth of an inch apart 

 by three rows of twined weaving, 

 followed by a row in which an ex- 

 tra strengthening twig is whipped 

 or sewed in place, as in the Makah 

 basketry. At intervals of L'£ to 3 

 inches are three rows of twined 

 basketry, every alternate seiies 

 having one of the strengthening 

 twigs, increasing in thickness 

 downward. The twigs constitut- 

 ing the true bottom of the so called 

 slipper continue to the end of the 

 square toe, and are fastened off, 

 while those that form the sides 

 are ingeniously bent to form the 

 vamp of the slipper. This pai t of 

 the frame is held together by rows 

 of twined weaving (boitstrophedon). 

 When two rows of this kind of 

 twining lie quite close it has the appearance of a four-ply plaiting, and 

 has been taken for such by the superficial observer. 



The binding around the opening of the cradle is formed of a bundle 

 of twigs seized with a strip of bast or tough root. 

 The awning is made of open wicker and twined basketry, bound with 



by pressure of bead anklets (vol. II, p. 115). The Cookoooose, on the Pacific coast, do not 

 flatten the bead (vol. n, p. 119). It is stated that " the Killan»ucks,Clatsops,Chinnook8, 

 and Cathlamabs * * * have thick ankles and crooked legs" due to "the uni- 

 versal practice of squatting, * * * and also to the tight bandages of beads and 

 strings worn around the ankles by the women," whose limbs are "particularly ill- 

 shaped and swollen." "The custom * * * of flattening the head by artificial 

 pressure during infancy, prevails among all the nations we have seen west of the 

 Rocky Mountains" (Snakes and Cookoooose they themselves except). "To the east 

 of that barrier the fashion is * * * perfectly unknown." An error! "On the 

 lower parts of the Columbia both sexes are universally flatheads; the custom dimin- 

 ishes in receding eastward, * * * till among the remoter tribes, near the mount- 

 ains," the practice " is confined to a few females" (vol. II, pp. 130, 131). 

 * Smithsonian Report, 1836, i., pp. 205-239, pi. XXVI. 



• Fig. 11. 

 Hupa Wicker-Cradle. 



(Cat. No. 126519. U. S. N. M. Hupa Valley, California. 

 Collected by Lieut. P. H. Ray, U. S. A.) 



