272 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



purpose they used baskets, hampers, wallets, par-Heche cases, skin 

 bottles, skin wallets, and every other receptacle hitherto described. 

 (Figs. 25, 26.) In some of the mounds that have been carefully ex- 

 amined little striae showed that about a peck of earth constituted the 

 separate loads of dirt which were doubtless scraped up near by and 

 carried on the head or back in baskets to the mound. The first settlers 

 found the aborigines carrying on a respectable commerce, and using 

 inventions that were truly labor-saving machines. 



Fig. 21. 



Italian Woman' supporting empty 

 jar. 



(From a photograph in the_U S. National Mu- 

 seum. ) 



Fig. 22. 

 Breast straps. 



(Cat. No. 70962—4, U. S. N. M. Zuiii Indians. New 

 Mexico. Collected by James Stevenson.) 



Fortunately a beautiful example of a carrying apparatus was gath- 

 ered forty years ago from the Arikara and Maudan area. (Fig. 26.) 

 Its composition is worthy of our closest study. Four bent poles con* 

 stitute the frame-work, two of them with a wide interspace, the other 

 two narrow, like an ox-yoke bow. The two wide bows are placed nearly 

 parallel and about 10 inches apart at top and 4 at bottom. The nar- 

 row ones cross these at right angles nearly, only they are spread a 

 little at top. They are also as far apart as the length of the basket 

 demands. These two narrow bows descend 6 inches to afford a rest for 



