188 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



On the back is a long ornamental fringe at top, and lower down both 

 the head strap and two extra straps at the margin to secure the cradle 

 in other manipulations. The upper portion of the front is covered with 

 bead- work, solid blue ground, with bird-shaped figures in amber and 

 pink beads. On the light side of the hood hangs a long medicine bag 

 of buckskin, adorned with light blue beads of large size. A newspaper 

 correspondent from this region mentions a buckskin string upon these 

 cradles in which a knot is tied for every moon of the child's life. There 

 are little buckskin strings in the margin of this cradle near the hood, 

 but no knots have been tied in either of the cradles here described. 



In these two, as in many others mentioned in this paper, there is a 

 charming combination of the old and the new. The slab, the buckskin, 

 the medicine-bag, the fringe, the lashing are all pre-Columbian. The 

 beads, the flannel, the cloth lining, etc., are evidently derived ma- 

 terially from the whites. There is no change of structure or function 

 effected by any of these things. They simply replace other materials, 

 such as quill work, shell work, native cloth, fur or buckskin, in use be- 

 fore the advent of the whites. 



Fig. 19. 



Nevada Utr Cradle-frame : of Rods, with ad- 

 justable awmng. 



(Cat. No 7fi734, U. S. N. M. Specimen obtained from tlie Nevada 

 exhibit at the New Orleans Exposition ) 



Fig. 20. 

 Nevada Ute Cradle ; Full rigged. 



(Cat. No. 19040, U. S. N. M. Pyramid Lake, Nevada. 

 Collected by Stephen Powers. ) 



One of the widest-spread stocks of Indians formerly were the Sho- 

 shonians, reaching down the Great Interior Basin throughout its whole 



